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Max Weber, a German sociologist who lived from 1864 to 1920, famously connected the state to a monopoly on violence. Here’s what he wrote in his work “Economy and Society”:

“A compulsory political organization with continuous operations will be called a 'state' insofar as its administrative staff successfully upholds a claim to the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force in the enforcement of its order.”

This is not a perfect or complete definition of the state, and indeed nothing could be—I think “state-ness” is something that probably exists on a spectrum. But there are some really important insights here.

First is that the state is a political organization (or network of organizations) that enforces an order: it’s a group of people, which endures over time and not just temporarily, that creates rules for other people.

Second, that organization uses violence to enforce its rules. Fail to obey the state’s rules, and the state will send someone to hurt you.

Third, it doesn’t just use violence but it *monopolizes* violence. The state wants to be the only actor that gets to hurt people, and it sure doesn’t want to get hurt. The state is *sovereign,* the supreme authority in a given area.

And fourth, that monopoly on violence is legitimate—not in the sense of being right or just or good, but in the sense that the state’s use of violence will be endorsed by other actors subject to the state’s rule. If a cop shoots you, the cop probably will not go to prison, but you might (if you survive).

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber