POLS 110 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Nationstates, Communitarianism, Harm Principle

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Weber regards the state as an institution claiming a monopoly of the legitimate use of force in enforcing its order within a given territorial area: the state is therefore linked with sovereignty. The idea of the sovereign state denotes its superiority as the highest form of authority in a particular territory: there is no higher authority within that territory, and no external challenge to this authority. Sovereign states replaced feudal societies which shared authority between the aristocracy and the catholic church in the 15th and 16th centuries. In constitutional theory states are sovereign, but in reality, states have always faced challenges from within and outside their borders, therefore limiting their autonomy. There is a crucial distinction between de jure sovereignty, which refers to a legal right to rule supremely, and de facto sovereignty, which refers to the actual distribution of political power.

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