The governing elite may legitimate collectively binding decisions and claims to power by presenting them as serving the general interest, without that legitimation being shared or internalised by all citizens.
Domain: The State
Proposition 096 – Compulsory surrender of resources
The state may compel individuals and social circles to surrender resources for collective goals determined by the state.
Proposition 095 – State sanctioning and coercion
The state differs from other social circles because its sanctions can ultimately be enforced through coercion regarded as legitimate and cannot be avoided simply by leaving the circle.
Proposition 094 – Legitimation of state coercion
The state claims, through the institutions competent within its territorial order, the exclusive right to employ coercion and violence as legitimate means within that territory, and legitimates that claim through its circle civilisation.
Proposition 093 – Territorial binding of the state
The state differs from most other social circles because individuals cannot escape its territorially binding rules and institutions simply by leaving the circle.
Proposition 092 – The state as social circle
The state is a social circle to which the general theory of social circles applies.
State
A territorial social circle whose social order is embedded in institutions that claim the authority to establish collectively binding rules within the territory and, where necessary, to enforce them by means of coercion regarded as legitimate and exclusive.
Governing elite
The individuals who occupy positions within the institutions of the state that give them, to a particular degree, the power to influence, constrain or direct collectively binding decisions, institutional standards and the narrative of the state.