Monopoly on violence
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In political philosophy, a monopoly on violence or monopoly on the legal use of force is the property of a polity that is the only entity in its jurisdiction to legitimately use force, and thus the su
A Guatemalan policeman holding a suspect at gunpoint during a security checkpoint exercise. Due to the monopoly on violence held by the state, the policeman is allowed to use force and the threat of force legally where reasonable, while the suspect is not.
Anarchist placard at the Ohio Statehouse, 12 December 2020
Max Weber
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Maximilian Carl Emil Weber was a German sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sciences more generall
Monopoly on violence
…and thus the supreme authority of that area. While the monopoly on violence as the defining conception of the state was first described in sociology by Max Weber in his essay Politics as a Vocation (1919), the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force is a core concept of modern public law, which goes…
Weber in 1918
Max Weber (left) and his brothers, Alfred (center) and Karl (right), in 1879
Max Weber and his wife Marianne in 1894
Max Weber in 1907