Towards a political ontology of state power: a comment on  C olin  H ay's article | Zendy

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Towards a political ontology of state power: a comment on C olin H ay's article

Author(s) -

Jessop Bob

Publication year - 2014

Publication title -

the british journal of sociology

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 1.826

H-Index - 92

eISSN - 1468-4446

pISSN - 0007-1315

DOI - 10.1111/1468-4446.12087

Subject(s) - ontology , state (computer science) , power (physics) , politics , epistemology , transitive relation , expressive power , realism , object (grammar) , sociology , computer science , political science , philosophy , artificial intelligence , mathematics , law , theoretical computer science , algorithm , physics , quantum mechanics , combinatorics

This article offers some critical realist, strategic‐relational comments on C olin H ay's proposal to treat the state as an ‘as‐if‐real’ concept. The critique first develops an alternative account of ontology, which is more suited to analyses of the state and state power; it then distinguishes the ‘intransitive’ properties of the real world as an object of investigation from the ‘transitive’ features of its scientific investigation and thereby provides a clearer understanding of what is at stake in ‘as‐if‐realism’; and it ends with the suggestion that a concern with the modalities of state power rather than with the state per se offers a more fruitful approach to the genuine issues raised in H ay's article and in his earlier strategic‐relational contributions to political analysis.

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