Rationality, Balance, and Domination: The Meaning and Genealogy of “The State as Machine”

“The state as machine” metaphor has a unique place in the history of modern political thought and among the theories of the state. Three genealogies of “the state as machine” emerged after the emergence of mechanistic philosophy in the seventeenth century: (1) the state as a rational machine that operates autonomously, as represented by Hobbes, Cameralism, and Max Weber; (2) the state as a complex machine of checks and balances on power, as represented by Montesquieu and the Federalists; (3) the state as a dynamic machine of class rule, as represented by Marxism. Clarifying the history of the development of “the state as machine” not only helps us to understand the metaphor's theoretical near-death and practical pseudo-death, but also prompts us to fairly examine its place in intellectual history and its contemporary significance.