[baddox]

I would prefer a more specific definition that would match more closely to people's intuition about what is and isn't a state, and also allows for discussion about what the state should and shouldn't do. If we define "state" as to include animals protecting their territory, I don't see how the term will be very useful in any discussion.

[kaonashi]

I think it's a specific rejection of the notion that there ever existed a time before governments. Governments existed, in some form, the moment particles started interacting.

[foobarbazqux]

I hadn't thought of it in those terms but I like that understanding of governments. A cell is a state, its laws are its DNA, and its borders are its membrane; and not just metaphorically speaking.

[foobarbazqux]

One useful reason to define states as such is because it's a definition that draws on the natural world. If states are only natural, and inevitable, then we don't have to argue about whether they are fundamentally good or bad.

What is your definition of a state?