There is a fourth institutional dimension to be distinguished: control of the means of violence. Military power was always a central feature of pre-modern civilisations. Yet in those civilisations the political centre was never able for long to secure stable military support and typically fell short of securing a monopoly control of the means of violence within its territories. The military strength of the ruling authorities depended upon alliances with local princes or warlords, who were always liable either to break away from or directly to challenge the ruling groups. The successful monopoly of the means of violence within territorially precise borders is distinctive to the modern state. So also is the existence of specific links to industrialism, permeating both the organisation of the military and the weaponry at their disposal. The "industrialisation of war" radically changes the character of warfare, ushering in an era of "total war" and later the nuclear age.

XREF: Connects to Weber's definition of the state as the entity holding a monopoly on legitimate violence.

Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Moderni…, loc. 155