Lec 3- the state

Question 1

“the state” for weber

Answer 1

the modern state is a compulsory association which organizes dominance

• the organization that maintains a monopoly of force over a given territory
• consider relationship between the state and power, dominance, oppression?

Question 2

“the state” for us

Answer 2

• human community that claims the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force or violence

Question 3

the modern state (McLean)

Answer 3

definition: a distinct set of political institutions whose specific concern is with the organization of domination in the name of the common interest

Question 4

6 characteristics of a modern state

Answer 4

1. the legislature:
   - law-making body
2. the executive:
   - the institution that executes, puts into practice. the decisions of the legislature
3. civil service:
   - the institution responsible for the day-to-day implementation and application of all laws and regulations emerging from the executive
4. the courts
5. the police
6. army

Question 5

sovereign

Answer 5

• the ability to carry out actions and policies within a territory independently of external actors and internal rivals
• a state needs to have sovereignty over its territory and the people
• a state needs power

Question 6

the state is oppressive in its existence and oppressive in its absence

Answer 6

• this means that the state is janus-faced
• it is both the mechanism for rights oppression and for rights vindication (by the courts and within the liberal democracies)

Question 7

weber’s method

Answer 7

comparative-historical

• interested in the legitimacy of domination so his historical process involved expropriating the legitimate exercise of domination from the ‘estates’. this process involved the professionalization of politics.

Question 8

Tammany Hall

Answer 8

• where political bosses in NYC organized the vote for the democratic party
• famous for corruption but also an engine of early immigrant integration
• where “vote early, vote often” came from