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Article Dans Une Revue British Journal of Sociology Année : 2014

Neither real nor fictitious but ‘as if real’? A political ontology of the state

Résumé

The state is one of series of concepts (capitalism, patriarchy and class being others) which pose a particular kind of ontological difficulty and provoke a particular kind of ontological controversy – for it is far from self-evident that the object or entity to which they refer is in any obvious sense ‘real’. In this paper I make the case for developing a distinct political ontology of the state which builds from such a reflection. In the process, I argue that the state is neither real nor fictitious, but ‘as if real’ – a conceptual abstraction whose value is best seen as an open analytical question. Thus understood, the state possesses no agency per se though it serves to define and construct a series of contexts within which political agency is both authorized (in the name of the state) and enacted (by those thereby authorized). The state is thus revealed as a dynamic institutional complex whose unity is at best partial, the constantly evolving outcome of unifying tendencies and dis-unifying counter-tendencies.

Dates et versions

hal-02186425 , version 1 (17-07-2019)

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Citer

Colin Hay. Neither real nor fictitious but ‘as if real’? A political ontology of the state. British Journal of Sociology, 2014, 65 (3), pp.459 - 480. ⟨10.1111/1468-4446.12082⟩. ⟨hal-02186425⟩
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