Response #1

Response to: Politics as a Vocation by Max Weber

Near the beginning of his essay, Weber asserts that the defining characteristic of the state is its position as the “sole source of the right to use violence” (32), but he also acknowledges that many other tools are available to the state. After reading this admission of alternative means, I became interested in what other techniques states use to achieve their goals. Clearly other methods exist, or else life would be consumed by constant threats and abuse by the state. The most obvious device outside violence for me is the ability of the state to deprive citizens of freedoms and options, such as when states prohibit certain goods or jail people. The reverse of this is also true: another option for rulers is to provide incentives to follow or obey state policy, including production bonuses or merit recognition. The state may also use psychological strategies to enforce its will, by publicly honoring citizens, by inciting a culture of paranoia, or even by relaxing social norms. Spiritual tools also exist for certain countries, ranging from instituting a theocracy to acknowledging or disregarding the holidays of various religions. For every aspect of human life, there is a way the state can attempt to insert its influence and control, but all these other techniques rest on the foundation of the use of force that Weber initially lays out. Whenever the state does not fully control the use of force, its political stability comes into question, and its other methods of persuasion begin to lose their potency. This is a key reason why former entities like the Roman Empire or the French monarchy eventually fell apart: they had no ultimate way of enforcing their will, due to external takeover or internal collapse of their power base. The use of violence is the essential resource for states.