L1: State Formation and Failure

Question 1

definition of a nation

Answer 1

group of people who share some common identity (language, religion, ethnicity, shared history). Stateless nations exist.

Question 2

definition of a nation-state

Answer 2

is a state in which a single nation predominates and the legal, social, demographic, and geographic boundaries of the state are linked to that nation

Question 3

definition of a state

Answer 3

an entity that uses coercion and the threat of force to rule in a given territory

Question 4

definition of a failed state

Answer 4

a state unable to use force to control the inhabitants of a given territory

Question 5

Social indicators or a fragile/ failed state

Answer 5

• Demographic pressures: deliver food and other life-sustaining resources to citizens
• Refugee pressures: number of refugees entering or leaving the state endangers public resources and threaten security
• Group grievances: tension or violence exist between groups
• Human flight: many educated, highly skilled, or highly-resourced citizens leaving the country

Question 6

Economic indicators or a fragile/ failed state

Answer 6

• Uneven economic development: poverty or lack of education concentrated in certain groups in society
• Economic decline: indicators of state capacity (GDP per capita, inflation, unemployment, or the deficit) getting better or worse

Question 7

Political indicators or a fragile/ failed state

Answer 7

• Legitimacy: level of (perceived) corruption among political and economic elites
• Public services: services like health care, sanitation, education, police, and public transportation widely accessible
• Human rights: civil liberties and press freedoms adequately protected
• Security apparatus: if rulers rely on secret police or security organizations to oppress opposition voices
• Factionalized elites: ruling elites and institutions fragmented along group lines
• External intervention: external actors involved in state affairs (military, aid, sanctions)

Question 8

Contractarian view of the state

Answer 8

• Hobbes, Locke , Rousseau
• The creation of the state results from a social contract between individuals in the state of nature, in which the state provides security in exchange for obedience from the citizen. Individuals would give up their natural rights (universal) in return for civil rights (created by states through laws).

Question 9

State of nature:

Answer 9

• Individuals realize they could gain by attacking their neighbours
• Everyone is aware to be equally vulnerable to attack

Question 10

The dilemma of the state of nature

Answer 10

Everyone would be better off if they all cooperate, but it’s better to be the attacker than the victim.

Question 11

Definition of a Nash equilibrium

Answer 11

a combination of strategies, one for each player, such that each player wouldn’t change their strategy, except if the other does

Question 12

Definition of a player’s best response

Answer 12

the choices that are “best” for each of the possible choices that the other player might make

Question 13

Definition of a social contract

Answer 13

an implicit agreement among individuals in the state of nature to create and empower the state. It outlines the rights and responsibilities of the parties.
give up natural rights for civil rights

Question 14

Basic Matrix

Answer 14

–

Question 15

Updated matrix for punishment

Answer 15

–

Question 16

Updated matrix for taxes

Answer 16

–

Question 17

what is the state then?

Answer 17

a third-party enforcer that can punish individuals who violate the social contract. With these punishments, stealing is no longer a dominant strategy for individuals in society.

Question 18

Civil society is preferred to the state of nature if and only if

Answer 18

• The punishment imposed by the state is sufficiently large that individuals prefer to refrain rather than steal (p>1)
• The tax charged by the state is sufficiently low (t<1)

Question 19

New security dilemma for citizens in the predatory view of the state

Answer 19

potential conflict with the state

Question 20

New security dilemma for rulers in the predatory view of the state

Answer 20

potential (internal and external) rivals vying to take their place

Question 21

Evolution of the modern state

Answer 21

1. Lawlessness after fall of Roman Empire
2. Feudal lords offering protection to peasants in exchange for rents or for working the lords’ land
3. Emerging lords soon faced rivals
4. New military technology gave lords with many peasants advantage over their rivals
5. Consolidation and emergence of feudal kings, who eventually subjugated other lords
6. Emergence of military organization, tax-collection agencies, police forces, courts, bureaucracies.

Question 22

Rulers engaged in four primary activities

Answer 22

• War Making: Eliminating or neutralizing rivals in other territories
• State Making: Eliminating or neutralizing rivals inside their own territory
• Protection: Eliminating or neutralizing enemies of the subjects who keep them in power (e.g., landed aristocracy or urban bourgeoisie)
• Extraction: Acquiring the revenue to carry out the above activities

Question 23

conflicts in the modern era

Answer 23

• Less inter-state war because of too policed relations.

- Heightened internal conflict because of artificially-drawn boundaries, diminishing state control.

Question 24

Indicators of continuum of ‘stateness’ or state effectiveness

Answer 24

• Social
• Economic
• Political