Abstract

The article addresses the definition of the State as an institution that holds the monopoly of the legitimate use of force/violence. It is divided into three parts: the first one discusses some chief scholarly contributions on the topic. The second focuses on Weber’s use of “monopoly” within his work, with the aim of showing that the expression “monopoly of the legitimate use of force/violence” can be better understood if conceived and explained within the much wider employment of this term. The third part analyses the expression “monopoly of the legitimate use of violence ” in Weber’s Intermediate Reflections. Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions. Trying to grasp the meaning of the expression within this text can be helpful in order to better illustrate its sense within the entire Max Weber’s work.