Violence, power and Nation-State

A sociological assessment

Abstract

The paper explores the intrinsic structural relation between power and violence in modernity. As in the modern era violence tends to be almost exclusively monopolized by the state apparatus, the focus is in particular on the Nation-State. However, sociology has tended to shy away from the study of the gory origins and nature of the national community. After an initial reflection on the classical understandings of power and violence, I analyze the leading
contemporary approaches in this field and sketch an alternative sociological account of coercion, power and nation-state by stressing the ideological underpinnings of this relationship