ABSTRACT
To speak of ‘the state’ is to talk of something that at once seems remarkably allusive and abstract – it is, after all, a construction or conception rather than a thing – but which can also, in certain contexts, seem terrifyingly concrete. Scholars may find the state hard to identify and its functions or actions difficult to define, but there are certain situations – when the taxman calls for tribute, the executioner wields his axe, and armed forces kill, rape and pillage – in which subjects or citizens are made acutely aware of the institutions that wield public power and authority over them.
