3 C. Nature of the state

1. An association, but claiming supremacy — it coordinates all other associations (Laski's pluralist question: should it?); 2. A legal abstraction — you can see the government offices, never "the state"; 3. Permanent and continuing — survives revolutions and constitutions; 4. Universal and compulsory — membership by birth (citizenship), not choice; 5. Territorially limited — sovereignty ends at the border; 6. Legitimate monopoly of force within its territory (Weber: the state is "a human community that claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory").