Colloquium on the State

The state is often considered the foundational institution of political life. But what is the state? (Is there such a thing?) While human beings have long formed political communities of some sort, the form of organization we call the state is a modern phenomenon, and perhaps a stranger one than we tend to think. This course asks what makes states distinct from other kinds of collective organization and how we should understand them as agents of political life. What is the source of the state’s particular forms of power and authority? What are states’ ends—their imperatives, motivations, and goals—and by what means do they advance them? Do states have defining features and capacities across time, or are these always historically contingent? How do states both reflect existing social relationships and create new ones? How have states changed over time, and how might they evolve in the future? This course will pose these questions by reading canonical theorists of the state, including Hobbes, Hegel, Weber, and Marx, alongside scholarship in political theory, political science, and related social scientific fields, leading up to contemporary debates and problems.