The article deals with the concept of the modern state in the political theory of M. Weber. The appeal to his intellectual heritage is dictated by the actual challenges of our time, especially, by the global trend towards changing the place and role of the state in the socio-political organization of modern society. In order to reconstruct the concept of the modern state, the author analyzes both the fundamental works of Weber and the works of well-known Russian and foreign researchers of his theoretical heritage. With the help of socio-philosophical and comparative analysis, it is shown that legitimate physical violence and bureaucracy are the most important features of a modern state. The relationship between the types of the legitimacy of political power and social action proposed by Weber and widely used in social science is characterized. The specificity of the modern bureaucratic state is revealed, the main features of bureaucracy as a way of organizing the political life of society are analyzed. The author notes that the process of bureaucratization is a natural consequence of the increasing rationalization of the public administration system and public life in general. It is concluded that the most significant features of the modern state, according to Weber, can be called the bureaucratization of political domination, as well as the increasing role of violence as the main tool for legitimizing the political order of modern society.
