State

"The State was the official representative of society as a whole; the gathering of it together into a visible embodiment. But, it was this only in so far as it was the State of that class which itself represented, for the time being, society as a whole: in ancient times, the State of slaveowning citizens; in the Middle Ages, the feudal lords; in our own times, the bourgeoisie."

— Marx and Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, Historical Materialism

The state is an apparatus of power which consists of lawmakers, executive officials, police, soldiers, and civil servants, among others. It serves to maintain armed control over the people and resources of a country, and does so on behalf of the ruling class of that country. In the case of capitalism, this class is the bourgeoisie.