The Archaeology of the Modern State

Abstract

Every theory of the state needs a historical foundation, since its reason for existence has to be traced and understood from the manner in which it came into being, its emergence and development. Max Weber’s writings do include some scattered remarks on the question of the origins of the state. His concept of the state is recognisably historical: if the state is defined by the criterion of the monopoly of violence, and this monopoly developed first during the early modern period, then for Weber the state is not only a historically located phenomenon but also a historical concept. In his own terms, the rulings groups that existed before the monopolisation of violence could not be states, because as far as he was concerned a “state” is modern, occidental, rational and bureaucratic — an Anstaltsstaat . But this clear understanding was entirely contradicted by the casual way in which he referred to the “state” of the ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and Chinese,¹ using the term “state” for the most diverse kinds of structure of rule, which according to his own definition, could not in any way be described as “states.” He did resolve to “use the expression ‘state’ … in a much more restricted sense,”² but this good intention remained unrealised.