title: Neither real nor fictitious but 'as if real'? A political ontology of the state.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Centre d'etudes européennes, Sciences Po.
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hay
mesh_terms: D006076:Government; D006801:Humans; D011057:Politics; D012919:Social Behavior; D066269:Social Theory
keywords: State; political ontology; realism; ‘as if realism’