In this part, we introduce two sets of the book’s most basic concepts. First, we define the concept of “state,” with related terms such as “violence,” “coercion,” and “regime;” and second, we turn to the concept of “elite,” with related terms like “ruling elite,” “patron-client relationship,” and “informality.” While some of these terms sound self-explanatory, it is of paramount importance to clarify in which sense we use them. Indeed, many debates center around not the essence of the given phenomena but the use of terminology, while actually referring to the same essential features.

As we do not want to make a normative point but develop a toolkit of descriptive concepts, technically any definition could be used for anything—the point is to provide useful, unambiguous means of expression [→ Introduction]. The reason we define these basic concepts the way we do is, first and foremost, to provide the groundwork for the rest of the toolkit. On the definitions given below, much of our framework can be coherently built, including the state concepts we elaborate on in the second half of this chapter, as well as the concepts defined in later chapters on actors, politics, economy, and society.