The state as abstraction

pp. 49-90

in: José M. Dominguès, Critical theory and political modernity, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019

Abstract

The modern state is discussed in this chapter in great detail. The classics and a genealogy of concepts are present at all steps. Jellinek, and Kelsen, Weber, Bourdieu and Mann, as well as more empirically oriented studies of bureaucracy and administration, are discussed. The rule of law, the executive, the legislative and the judiciary are analysed, as well as the police and violence. The de-personification of power stands out too, in a discussion that mobilizes Schmitt and Lefort. Domingues sticks to the abstract aspect of political modernity but, at the end of the chapter, he introduces representation as the category which enables a transition to the following chapter.