Štát

Abstract

As ordinarily used in political science and international relations discourse, the term „state“ refers to a rather wide range of concepts. At the same time, the term „state“ can be considered one of the basic building blocs of these discourses, being a key (and undertheorized) foundation of several major theories. The (ab)use of the term together with a distinctive prominence of social realities attributed to „the state“ in our ordinary life leads to massive reification and reduction of an otherwise rich and diverse conceptual universe. With the aim of clarifying and tidying this universe, this essay examines the possibilities of understanding „the state“ as a conceptual category referring to unique cultural artefacts produced by the interaction wide range of incommensurable social processes and representations whose research is only possible through its division into fi eld-specifi c subcategories. Furthermore, the paper examines the possibility of fi eld research in fi elds determining some of these categories (especially bureaucratic institutions/organizations) and points to ways of overcoming these problems.