What is an Independent State?
A specialized type of political organization characterized by a full-time, specialized, professional workforce of tax collectors, soldiers, policemen, bureaucrats, and the like that exercises supreme political authority over a defined territory with a permanent population, independent from any enduring external political control and possessing a local predominance of coercive power (always supplemented with moral and remunerative incentives as well) great enough to maintain general obedience to its laws or commands within its territorial borders.