The article discusses the Weberian concept of State. Tracking different formulations of the concept at different times of Weber's work this article highlights the relevance assumed the statement present in the section about the soziologische Kategorienlehre in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. This section Weber made explicit the two dimensions of the State: (1) the State as a political association (politischer Verband), and (2) the State as an enterprise (Betrieb). Considered together, these dimensions allow to understand the coincidence inside the State of a drastic efficiency of the means of coercion, and the possibility of a rational ordering of their application, allowing to go beyond the traditional exposition of the Weberian concept of the State.
State; Political Association; Enterprise; Max Weber