State

"A state is a political association with effective sovereignty over a geographic area and representing a population. A state usually includes the set of institutions that claim the authority to make the rules that govern the people of the society in that territory, though its status as a state often depends in part onbeing recognized by a number of other states as havinginternal and external sovereignty over it. In sociology, thestate is normally identified with these institutions: in Max Weber's influential definition, it is that organization that ""(successfully) claims a monopoly on thelegitimate use of physical force within a given territory,""which may include the armed forces, civil service or state bureaucracy, courts, and police."