The term state has many definitions across many different knowledges. In physics, the term refers to the physical manifestation of specific elements – liquid, gas, or solid. In psychology, it can reference a person’s specific condition or manner of existing. The Oxford English Dictionary, in one of its many definitions of the term, defines state as “the combination of circumstances or attributes belonging at a particular time to a person or thing.” The country is currently in a “state” of general uncertainty; after the accident, the car is in a “state” of disrepair. But within the realm of social sciences, state refers to a more formal, yet still oddly amorphous concept – the state.

In humanity’s most primal condition of existence, there were no laws and rules. There were no borders and certainly no governmental bodies – no state. Humans exercised free will to roam the earth and utilized whatever resources were available in the pursuit of survival and, perhaps, even happiness. Thomas Hobbes argued that this lawless world, however, also resulted in violence being inflicted upon one another without concern, famously referring to this condition of being as a “state of nature” – “an inhumane world ruled by violence and the fear of violence (Fardy, 2014).” To live a life free of the inherent violence and terror that a state of nature would undoubtedly bring about, individuals enter what Hobbes calls the “social contract,” that is individuals consent to the formation of civil society by relinquishing the “power to do violence to a sovereign individual or assembly (Fardy, 2014).” This contract is not a literal contract that people would make with one another (though there might have been that going on), but rather an implicit consent granted by the individual to a governing entity that would rule through law and order.

The Hobbesian social contract is what enables state-building. Indeed, the implicit consent granted by individuals to figures or organizations of authority allows the creation of systems of governance. Laws are established to delineate between behavior and activity that is allowed and not allowed in civil society. Economic systems are created to facilitate commerce. Organizational government is installed to create systematic checks and balances. The entire apparatus becomes the state. While seemingly objective, perhaps even benevolent in intent, the state is far from it. Max Weber expands upon the notion of violence from Hobbes and says that a state is “a human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory (Lottholz, et al, 2016)” The state wields the threat of violence and inflicts violence with legitimate authority. This is the power of the state.