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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   Edited 1yr ago   38249 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022

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I would just like to note that "entities violently fighting each other for control over an area" is something that doesn't happen in an area ruled by a government, unless you live in a country currently at war.

Yes, that's just called a civil war. The whole point of the comparison is that the organizations we normally recognize as governments are the ones who have a successful monopoly on violence.

Straightforwardly expressed by Weber, a basic necessity for a state:

A compulsory political association with continuous operations (politischer Anstaltsbetrieb) will be called a ‘state’ insofar as its administrative staff successfully upholds the claim to the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force [Zwanges] in the enforcement of its order. Social action, especially the actions of an association [organized action; Verbandshandeln], will be spoken of as ‘politically oriented’ to the extent in which [if; dann und insoweit] it aims at exerting influence on the leadership [government; Leitung] of a political association [organization; Verbandes]; especially at the appropriation, expropriation, redistribution or allocation of the powers of government [Regierungsgewalten].

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