Weber focuses his analysis on "political organizations", i.e. "states", and identifies two general forms of the state, supposedly encompassing all state forms at the most general level:
- The administrative staff beneath the ruler in status and power has its own means of administration separate from those of the ruler. This can include various forms of wealth and possessions, as well as means of production and control over labor. This administrative staff is essentially aristocratic, subdivided into distinct estates;
- The administrative staff is completely or partially separated from the actual tools of administration, similar to Marx's conception of how the proletariat is separated from the means of production. This staff become confidants without means in a patriarchal organization of deference and delegation.
Weber delineates two different ideas of the "state" based on the relationship between the administrators and their access to the actual means of administration. The first form is "patrimonialism" and dependent on the personality of the ruler, and the loyalty of his followers. There is no emphasis on technical capacity as there is in the second form of the state, which is considered to be modern. In the modern form, the administrators do not personally own the money, buildings, and organizations they direct. Executive decisions often remain with political figures, even though they do not have the technical ability that the modern professional administrators do.
