![]() 15 Because only the state monopolizes, or controls the means to achieve an end that only it can fulfill, Weber believes that the state is the sole entity that can legitimately assert its power by the use of might. 14 In other words, Weber believes that the state can coerce people under its jurisdiction with its potential to employ the means of authority, or legitimate violence to achieve the goal of maintaining and asserting its authority. 13 Finally, with this outline of Weber’s views on legitimacy, the reader may now understand his definitions of the state and the forms of authority that he claims it employs to maintain its legitimacy.Īccording to Weber, a defining characteristic of the state is its total domination over the right to use legitimate force to assert its legitimacy within its domain. 12 Though it does not seem that Weber wholeheartedly ascribes to social contract theories, he nevertheless claims that it is a possibility and that it does reflect social arrangements of old. To him, just as a worker is a member of a place of work and gives up of some of his/her freedoms to gain money, a subject, who is a member of a state, gives up a piece of his/her freedom to gain the benefits of living within a human community. 10 Furthermore, Weber claims that the belief in the legitimacy of the state is akin to how a worker, who is a member of a workplace, acquiesces to the rules of his/her employer to receive the right of payment. 9 Hence, as a source that is customarily accepted, the state can maintain a person’s feelings of loyalty, and it can fulfill the desires of its members, which Weber believes legitimates it because it alone is independent of politics, or the struggle for a piece of the state’s legitimate power. 8Īlso, Weber claims that obeying the state is a result of, but not solely due to, people’s habit to do so, their affection for the state, and for the intricate interests that they may gain from obedience to it. 7 Hence, because one may gain what they view to be an advantage by obeying the state, it follows that they recognize the state as legitimate since they accept it as the source of command and power that can grant them the advantages they seek to obtain. 6 Weber seems to support this claim when he states that those who have ulterior motives, or intentions for personal gain, have an interest in obeying the state since it is the source that can grant them their wants. 5īy using knowledge and not just physical force to assert power, as reasoned by Foucault, the state positions itself to perpetuate and increase control over its people through the process of normalization.įurthermore, because personal interests play a role in sustaining obedience within the state, one may claim that there is a purposive element to being obedient. How do states accomplish the task of ensuring that its people will obey its decrees? Weber states that people submit to the authority of the state because of factors that range from simple habit to very specific desires for advantage. 4 In other words, a state’s legitimacy depends on the probability that those within in it will, in theory, abide by all of its commands. Weber claims that the state’s legitimacy rests on the chance that people will follow its commands as a given source of power. Lastly, I will argue that the power the state has, through the use of institutions, to employ and perpetuate knowledge as a means of coercion, can be understood to be another essential piece in defining the concept of the state, which I believe Weber’s “Politics as a Vocation” seems to miss. Next, by drawing from the works of Foucault I will suggest that there are other forms of power that states' use to assert their authority. ![]() This paper will first describe Weber’s views on legitimacy, his definitions of the state, and the forms of legitimation which he claims justifies his definitions. ![]() 2 But, should one only support Weber’s claims despite the fact that states also employ knowledge as a means to preserve their power? 3 1 He also claims that one can define the state as being a human community where people struggle with one another for what is ultimately a greater share of the power to apply legitimate force. ![]() In his “Politics as a Vocation,” Weber claims that one of the definitions of the state is its ability to employ legitimate violence as a means of control in a given territory. As a founder of sociology, Max Weber influenced the social sciences immensely.
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