the monopoly on violence or the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force is a core concept of modern public law, which goes back to jean bodin's 1576 work "les six livres de la république" and thomas hobbes' 1651 book "leviathan". as the defining conception of the state, it was first described in sociology by max weber in his essay "politics as a vocation" (1919). weber claims that the state is the "only human "gemeinschaft" which lays claim to the monopoly on the legitimated use of physical force. however, this monopoly is limited to a certain geographical area, and in fact this limitation to a particular area is one of the things that defines a state." in other words, weber describes the state as any organization that succeeds in holding the exclusive right to use, threaten, or authorize physical force against residents of its territory. such a monopoly, according to weber, must occur via a process of legitimation.