What would a more sophisticated conceptualization of the state look like?

Here, we focus on three important issues: the move from coercion to consent as the key underpinning of rule; the continuing active role of the state; and the changing nature of legitimacy.

More on the topic What would a more sophisticated conceptualization of the state look like?:

1. The so-called ‘new institutionalism’ is a relatively recent addition to the pantheon of theories of the state and, like some of the other perspectives considered in this volume, it is by no means only a theory of the state
2. Like Henry Higgins who, through his work changed the object of his studies into something other than what it was, the purpose of the Marxist theory of the state is not just to understand the capitalist state but to aid in its destruction. (Wolfe 1974: 131)
3. The role of the state: challenges and responses
4. Shifting sands: the boundaries of the state
5. What is the state?
6. The concept of the state
7. Beyond the state?
8. Marxism and the state
9. SANCTION AND THE STATE
10. The state as institutional contextualization
11. The genealogy of the concept of the state
12. The state and problems of legitimacy