Chapter 2: The state

What is a state?

The German sociologist Max Weber defined the state as:

A human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.

This is a definition of institutionalised aggression. If legitimacy comes from respecting rights, then no one can have a monopoly on force. If legitimacy comes from a monopoly, then it is not legitimate.

In this constitution, the state is understood differently. Rather than a monopoly on force, the state is defined as the set of institutions that regulate the human community within a territory. It consists only of laws and public services: mechanisms, not rulers.