Lecture 1

Question 1

How does Weber define the state as?

Answer 1

The state is a political organisation, differentiated from other domains (culture, religion, etc.) of human interaction, not by its endless ends but by its means.

Question 2

How can you conceptualise the state?

Answer 2

• monopoly of legitimate violence
• territoriality: can only exert violence on certain territory
• sovereignty: expresses the right of the state to exert power/ violence. external (against other states) and internal (right to use power against institutions within the territory)
• impersonal power: theoretically impartial use of it, bureaucracy- people have a certain function they rule not on their personal qualities but because of their function within the bureaucracy
  -Citizenship

Question 3

What are the characteristics of citizenship?

Answer 3

• membership: rule of land, blood, naturalisation
• rights vs duties military service, tax in return for school, healthcare collective goods
• obedience vs legitimacy
• feedback and interaction

Question 4

What is the conceptual history of the state?

Answer 4

-from the status of the person to the personality of the state
-status
-estate
-not list property how you treat thee people, too
-state define by what it needs to do to maintain the state- mantenere lo stato
-L’État, c’est moi

Question 5

What is the reason for the state?

Answer 5

-religious conflicts
-sovereignty introduced by Bodin. Rule as an expression of sovereignty to end the conflict. it’s not the truth. It’s the power that creates authority. It does not have to be true or morally valid; it is just sheer force.
-Hobbes

Question 6

What is Otto Hintze view of state formation?

Answer 6

states make war and war makes states, mobilizing the means for war

Question 7

critsisms of Hintze

Answer 7

Michael Mann and brian downing: depends on the availability of capital

John brewer and perry Anderson: opportunity to attract available capital depends on previous social and institution structures

Charles Tilly: core relevance of cities as then you have capital

Question 8

what are characteristics of a city?

Answer 8

• Eigenthumlich- different from everyone else
  -willkur- only our decision
  -restrictive citenship
  -political representation in larger and smaller councils
• guilds with many social tasks
  -churches, religious confraternities and poor relief
  -militias- not important in defensive but in urban identity
  -strong urban identity (civic religion republican ideology)
  -divisive politics