This article explores the basic difficulties of studying the state and state power and their relation to the political system and wider sets of social relations. No single perspective can grasp these complexities, and this problem is reflected in rival definitions and approaches. After reviewing some of these accounts, the article introduces a “strategic-relational” approach (SRA) that analyses state power as an institutionally- mediated condensation of the changing balance of political forces. Among its implications are that state power is best treated as an explanandum rather than as an independent explanatory principle. The article ends with a brief research agenda.