There is no academic consensus on the definition of the state. The expression l'Etat, c'est moi (" I am the State") attributed to Louis XIV, although probably apocryphal, is recorded in the late 18th century. The North American colonies were called "states" as early as the 1630s. The contrasting of church and state still dates to the 16th century. The early 16th-century works of Machiavelli (especially The Prince) played a central role in popularizing the use of the word "state" in something similar to its modern sense. In time, the word lost its reference to particular social groups and became associated with the legal order of the entire society and the apparatus of its enforcement. The word also had associations with Roman ideas (dating back to Cicero) about the " status rei publicae", the "condition of public matters". The highest estates, generally those with the most wealth and social rank, were those that held power. With the revival of the Roman law in 14th-century Europe, the term came to refer to the legal standing of persons (such as the various " estates of the realm" – noble, common, and clerical), and in particular the special status of the king. 1200 both from Old French and directly from Latin. The English noun state in the generic sense "condition, circumstances" predates the political sense. Latin status derives from stare, "to stand," or remain or be permanent, thus providing the sacred or magical connotation of the political entity. The word state and its cognates in some other European languages ( stato in Italian, estado in Spanish and Portuguese, état in French, Staat in German) ultimately derive from the Latin word status, meaning "condition, circumstances". 5.7 State autonomy within institutionalism.5.6 Structural universe of the state or structural reality of the state.4 Theories for the emergence of the state.Today, the modern nation state is the predominant form of state to which people are subject. Over time, a variety of forms of states developed, which used many different justifications for their existence (such as divine right, the theory of the social contract, etc.). The earliest forms of states arose about 5,500 years ago as governments gained state capacity in conjunction with rapid growth of cities, invention of writing and codification of new forms of religion. Most of the human population has existed within a state system for millennia however, for most of prehistory people lived in stateless societies. (Other terms that are used in such federal systems may include “province”, “region” or other terms.) In a federal union, the term "state" is sometimes used to refer to the federated polities that make up the federation. The level of governance of a state, government being considered to form the fundamental apparatus of contemporary states, is used to determine whether it has failed. A state does not preclude the existence of a society, such as stateless societies like the Haudenosaunee Confederacy that "do not have either purely or even primarily political institutions or roles". One widely used definition comes from the German sociologist Max Weber: a "state" is a polity that maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, although other definitions are not uncommon. There is no undisputed definition of a state. The frontispiece of Thomas Hobbes' LeviathanĪ state is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory.