This text offers a comprehensive and systematic introduction to the major competing explanations and definitions of the state in modern societies. A series of co-ordinated essays examines key issues in the study of the state from Hobbes to Marx and Weber, theoretical problems in the analysis of contemporary states, the international context in which the state functions, the comparative functions of capitalist and communist states, and the future of the nation-state as we know it.

Throughout, the contributors emphasize the connections between conceptual issues and political implications, and present both in a clear and co-ordinated analysis for a student audience.