What/who is a state?

What/who is a state? For Weber, it is "a human community that claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory" (1). Even though Weber defines the state in terms of a community, this collectivity is difficult to comprehend in our political reading and discussion. In lecture Professor King defines a state as "a political-administrative and legal entity exercising sovereignty over a defined territory inhabited by a population" (Sept. 3). I believe that the state is even more than an entity or a perceived existence; rather it is a personified being. In other words the language used when describing the state is the same language one might use to describe a person. For Weber, the state can be successful at things or the state can take things. In lecture, the state can believe, it can tell, and it even can love ("the state loves to put people into categories") (Sept. 10). The language we use implies a state that has desires, beliefs, abilities, and failures. In reality, like Weber says, the state is a community of multiple individual human beings. But the members of a nation ruled by a state speak and refer to it as if it is a single person and a unified authority. The state, unlike politics, is not something we participate in, but rather something we obey. This may be a construction of the general population as a way to simplify and understand the complexities found in a pluralistic ruling entity. Or perhaps it is propelled by the individual members of the state itself, as a tool to promote a unified support and trust in "its"/"their" legitimacy.