6. Political institutions: State capacity, nation & State building

Question 1

State capture

Answer 1

The idea that in an autocratic regime there is often an overlap between state, regime & government.

Question 2

How states developed

Answer 2

1. from hunter-gatherers to herders to agriculture (Settling)
2. Agriculture enabled city-states, empires + nation-states
3. as humans shifted from nomadic ways of living to settling, territorial forms of political organisation developed.

Question 3

Modern European states

Answer 3

1. Modern because there is more centralisation of power + institutions that govern a large part of territory
2. ‘War built the state’’ – kings engaged in wars which required money, they did this through taxes.
   Which required bureaucrats, and police force.
3. Institutions for taxation became first state institution.

• State-building is rarely peaceful
• Nation-states are relatively recent phenomenon, states are much older.

Question 4

Colonisation + State building

Answer 4

• Modern state spread to European settler colonies only
• when decolonisation happened, these state structures were left behind.
• Important to make distinction between 2 waves of decolonisation
• Early decolonisation in Latin-America happened early 1800. Haiti independence triggered independence movements all over.
  Spanish empire was weak, so there was a door of opportunity.

Late decolonisation in Africa + Asia: After WW2, they had to fight in the war + wanted independence in return for it.
Started with India and others followed.

Colonisation has had important consequences for state structures, even after decolonisation.

– left behind a lot of different social groups in a state, which made state-building afterwards very difficult.

Question 5

Nation-states

Answer 5

1. Recent idea that the boundaries of state should also include a common nation
2. Older empires did not have a problem with multiple groups in one nation, so its more of an old European idea.
3. Creating cohesion between people versus supressing regional identities?

Question 6

Nations

Answer 6

1. A large body of people united by common descent, history, culture or language, inhabiting a state or territory
2. they do claim to statehood or self-rule, they do not necessarily have their own state.
3. they have aspirations for self-government + sovereignty.

Question 7

Ethnic groups

Answer 7

1. A community or population made up of people who share a common cultural background or descent
2. They do not have to have a nation or necessarily want to be a nation

Question 8

Imagined communities

Answer 8

1. Nations are imagined communities.
   Creating an identity + sense of belonging to a political community
2. State trying to create a common identity to create a stable state.

Question 9

Nationalism

Answer 9

1. Early on it was an ideology of liberation + unifying force:
   - Ataturk in Turkey created story on Who the Turkish are + unifyied them to leave the Ottoman Empire
2. In earlier Europe used as an unification program to create political communities.
   - France
3. Key question for democracy: Who is part of demos? Who do we consider legitimate co-citizens, and who do we legitimate see as ‘‘others’’

Question 10

How do social structures affect democratisation?

Answer 10

1. Social structures can be economic classes, ethnic, linguistic + religious hetereogeneity.
2. Affects democratization in that heterogeneity is less stable to rule over
3. its harder to stabilise because they might contest other groups coming into power
4. There are also peaceful nations with different social groups, so they form alliances to push for democratisation (or autocratisation)
5. can also create conflict + instability, resource differential, identity bias + mobilisation.

Question 11

(5) ways of dealing with different social groups

Answer 11

1. Equal rights
2. Political influence
3. Minimise resource differential
4. create common identity
5. find ways to share power

Core idea –> is that when countries become independent you need to establish boundaries of a state + who belongs to the demos. Otherwise democratisation is more difficult.

Question 12

State Capacity

Answer 12

1. Capability to rule a state.
   Ability of state institutions to effectively implement official goals.
2. There are strong and weak states

Question 13

State Autonomy

Answer 13

1. Capacity of a state to make its own decisions
2. A state can be strong, but not autonomous, or weak but autonomous.

Question 14

3 Types of state capacity

Answer 14

1. Coercive capacity:
   - states capacity to maintain their monopoly + deliver a minimum level of security for citizens.
2. Administrative Capacity:
   imlement policies + deliver basic public services
3. Extractive capacity:
   states capacity to generate resources.

extractive capacity important for sustaining both coercive and administrative capacity

Question 15

How does state capacity affect democratisation?

Answer 15

• Regime neutral stabiliser

Strong state capacity:
* autocracy can provide security to keep citizens happen, which stabilises. They can monitor citizens, oppress people + get rid of opposition
* Democracy provides better public services + security

Weak state capacity:
* Autocracies: more difficult to control citizens rising up against you, destabilises.
* democracies: citizens unhappy, wanting them to go back to autocracy

Question 16

State-first argument ( Fukuyama)

Answer 16

‘we need to have a strong state capacity before democratisation can happen’

You should not force democracy on a country –> can lead to violence

BUT, investing in strong state can also empower the authoritarian regime, and you can not deny the population an election, if they want this

Question 17

Critique on Fukuyama’s First state argument

Answer 17

Fukuyama bases his idea on the first wave of democratisation, the history of Europe. We have seen this model only work in South Korea + Taiwan. There is no reason to democratise as a autoritarian country with a strong State Capacity :) like nahh

Question 18

Sequencing idea in democratisation

Answer 18

1. First state development + then democracy
2. Following a certain path, need certain pre-conditions
3. There is a risk of only focusing on one thing + strenghtening autoritarian regime.

(preconditonalists)

Question 19

Gradualism idea in democratisation

Answer 19

1. Building democracy slowly
2. Building state and democratization at the same time

(Universalist)

Question 20

How can state capacity sustain authoritarianism ?

Answer 20

1. By providing public services
2. Oppression
3. Clientelism
4. Corruption
5. Electoral fraud

Clientelism = public support in exchange for goods/ services

Question 21

How can state capacity sustain democracy?

Answer 21

1. Providing public services
2. Makes challenges to system more difficult
3. Can enable clientelism depending on how corrupt the country is.

Question 22

Paradox of State capacity

Answer 22

1. Weak state capacity
   Makes transition more likely
   Stabilization less likely
2. Strong state capacity
   Makes transition less likely
   Stabilization more likely

Question 23

What is state fragily and what are failed states?

Answer 23

Fragile states: struggle to implement policies, provide security, and extract resources

Failed states: lose control entirely, leading to violence and instability