TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2014//
TI  - Neither real nor fictitious but 'as if real'? A political ontology of the state
JO  - British journal of sociology
A1  - Hay, Colin
SP  - 459
EP  - 480
VL  - 65
IS  - 3
N2  - 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.<p />
LA  - en
SN  - 0007-1315
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12082
ID  - ref1
ER  -