According to Hans Kelsen's positivist theory, the legal definition of state implies a principle of hierarchy of norms. Foucault almost completely overturns this hierarchy, as well as its indispensable complement, namely the doctrine of the material elements of state. These material elements deemed to be the tangible projection of public power, that is to say territory, population, and government. The first two appear respectively as the framework and the object of public power; the third involves bodies and institutions specifically intended to implement the norms enacted by the sovereign, i.e. the laws. Foucault spoke extensively about each of them, sometimes more than Weber himself: he closely associates territory with the setting up of disciplinary power, and population with the establishment of biopower. The third material element, ‘government’, involves the theory of the organs of the state among jurists, or, in Weberian terms, an administrative staff capable of enforcing the regulations.