Published: 15 March 2015
Purpose. To determine if it is possible to use the notion of “state” in relations of empire political systems and if yes, to what type of states empires can be referred. Methods. Historical-comparative, structural-functional. Based on the principles of a systematic approach, the author uses methods of analysis, synthesis, assessment, correlation and comparison. Results. The author reviews scientific discussions in the segment of the political philosophy language towards the essence of “state” in their application to the subject of research of empires. The author also gives a retrospective of the notion “state” as our national scientists explained it in the Post-Soviet period. The author gives a positive answer to the main question and offers his own classification. Scientific novelty. The author concludes that the empire is a “state” if we explain the latter mainly though administrative institute. However, empires as states differ typologically from other types of states, in particular national state.