How might we define the modern state? The inference that we might be able to define what constitutes a modern state presupposes that it already existed prior to it becoming modern. This is not in doubt. What are task then entails is to illuminate the transition from pre-modern to a modern state, and to distinguish its characteristic features. We shall undertake this task by considering historical changes in how the state legitimises its rule, and …showed first 75 words of 1613 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1613 total…Dora Kindersley. The Idea of the Modern State. Buckingham: Open University Press. 1-28. Held, D. 1989. Political Theory and the Modern State. Polity Press: Cambridge. Hobbes, T. 1996. Leviathan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Laski, H,J. 1919. The long Parliament', British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and protectorate 1638-60. Online. Available from: http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/glossary/long-parliament.htm [accessed 1/11/04]. Poggi, G. 1978. The development of the Modern State. London: Hutchinson. Torstendahl, R. 1992. State Theory and State History. London: Sage.