Summary

What is the political locus of the “holy trinity” of institutional attributes: legitimacy, autonomy, and capacity? Is it the state, the regime, or the government? This paper proposes a return to the Weberian definition of the state and the incorporation of micro-foundations in order to re-analyze the meaning of “state legitimacy”, “state capacity” and “state autonomy”. An important result of the analysis is a novel, albeit classical, definition of “state policy” (as opposed to government policy) and of “state autonomy”, in which the state can be captured not only by powerful economic groups but also by the government itself. An illustration of the usefulness of the assessment is provided by a brief application of the concepts to the analysis of the varieties of the “Left turn” in South America.