Premium
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.