Lecture 3; origins of a modern state Flashcards
What is a modern state
The state is a human community that claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory
or
A state is an organization with a comparative advantage in violence, extending over geographic area whose boundaries are determined by its power to tax individuals
What are Common factors of a state
A given territory
The use or threat of force to control the inhabitants
What are some failed States
Afghanistan, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Congo, etc
What is a Failed State
a state like entity that can not coerce and is unable to successfully control the inhabitants of a given territory
What is the Contraction view of a state
without a common power to keep them all in awe the people will chose to steal and kill
What is the state of nature
a term used to describe situation in which there is no state
What is a Nash Equilibrium
A set of strategies such that no player has an incentive to unilaterally witch to another strategy
Both players must be playing best replies - which is the action that yields the highest payoff given what the other player is doing
Social contract and the state
The social contract should produce a sovereign that is strong enough to dole out punishments to individuals who steal
The Sovereign ____
Prevents the state from using its power over violence against us
The Contractarian view ___
Conflicts of interests between individuals
A Predatory view
creates potential conflicts of interest between citizens of the state
What is State formation
The need to compete with external rivals creates the pressure for rulers to raise revenues to fight wars
The need to extract a lot of revenues poses a problem for rulers, The elimination of internal rivals and the development of the capacity to extract resources is the process of state making
What do States do
War making
State making
Protection
Extraction
Limits to state predation
If taxes too high, investments will be limited
ight be able to benefit from voluntary compliance
Less predation = a bigger net extractive capacity
Less predation = reducing the cost of conducting business
Less predation = a smaller portion of a larger pie
