# Max Weber Back to [[Economic Freedom and Prosperity]] · [[Vocabulary#The state and power|Vocabulary]] **Role:** German sociologist and political economist (1864–1920) ◻. - In the lecture "Politics as a Vocation" (Munich, 1919) he defined the state as "a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory" ✔ ([Balliol extract](https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/politics_as_a_vocation_extract.pdf)). - In the same lecture: "The direction of capitalist enterprises, despite far-reaching analogies, follows quite different laws than those of political administration" ✔. This cuts against the "government is the biggest corporation" slogan. - Other works: *The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism* (1905), *Economy and Society* (posthumous, 1922) ◻. - **In X research:** paraphrased without credit by [@brivael, Oct 24, 2026, 8:16 AM CT](https://x.com/brivael/status/2113983020944207877) ("the only one with a monopoly on legitimate violence"), echoing @elonmusk's "monopoly on violence". See [[Users/@brivael/Post Analyses/Post Analysis - brivael on Government as the Biggest Corporation (2026-10-24)|post analysis]]. Key: ✔ confirmed this session · ◻ standard knowledge, not opened this session · ⚠️ unconfirmed.