A state claims a monopoly over power and violence on its territory. In an early medieval state, such monopoly belonged to a prince, king, emperor or a monarch possessing a different title. This monarch was collecting taxes, demanding services, proclaiming laws and was the superior judge as well as the chief military commander. All the important decisions, even those made by the Great Moravian prince had to be approved by "all the Moravians" on a diet. Thus, the Great Moravian prince´s power was not a monarchist one and Great Moravia was still only an emerging and imperfect state.
