Lektion 2: Nation state

Question 1

What is the state?

Answer 1

! Monopoly of legitimate violence ! Territoriality
! Sovereignty
! Plurality
! The people

Question 2

what is Monopoly of violence

Answer 2

! Single centre of power
! Obedience and binding policies
! No individual use of violence
! Enforcement requires infrastructure

Question 3

What is the Territoriality

Answer 3

! Defined territory
! Demarcation of states monopoly of power
! Defence as main state task
! States do not collapse if borders change

Question 4

What is the Sovereignty

Answer 4

!  State as ultimate authority
!  Principle of non-intervention 
!  Exception: war and conquest 
!  Disputed criterion:
!  Supranational organisations 
!  Economic interdependence

Question 5

What is the Plurality

Answer 5

! Borders imply neighbours
! Plurality of sovereign states
! Potential threats
! Have to enter relations

Question 6

What is the People

Answer 6

! States rule and consist of people
! Ruler-people relationship grounded in violence
! Factual membership
! Ideational membership

Question 7

What is the three phases of state development

Answer 7

Consolidation of rule
Rationalisation of rule
Expansion of rule

Question 8

What is the Consolidation

Answer 8

!  12th to 17th century
!  Defining state territories
!  Mostly driven by war and conquest
!  ‘Premium on size’
!  Produced relatively stable political map

Question 9

What is the Rationalisation

Answer 9

!  Concerns internal power relation
!  Creating political centre
!  Absolutism important step towards modern state 
!  Professional bureaucracies
!  Increase states’ capacity

Question 10

What is the Expansion

Answer 10

!  States tend to grow
!  More money, staff and functions
!  Bureaucracies’ inherent tendency
!  Transition to representative government 
!  Social change

Question 11

What is the State-society differentiation?

Answer 11

! States constrained to political activity
! Withdrawal from two spheres
- Religion
- Economy

Question 12

How does the Public sphere participate

Answer 12

! Intermediate level between state and society
! Depends on state-protected institutions
! Related to idea of representative government
! Expansion of democratic participation

Question 13

What is the Citizenship

Answer 13

!  Equal rights and duties
!  Progressive extension since 17th century
1.  Civil rights:
2.  Political rights
3.  Social rights

Question 14

What is the Nationhood

Answer 14

!  Imagined community
!  Trust,belonging,pride,solidarity
!  Powerful political concept
!  Nationhood can precede states
!  ...but is also promoted by existing states 
!  Nation-state recent phenomenon

Question 15

Which components does Giddens say Globalisation contain?

Answer 15

: economic, cultural & political

“intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away” (Giddens)

Question 16

How can the gloabalisation influence the state?

Answer 16

Widespread concern about weakening of state

But not undisputed!

Potential consequences for:

1. Sovereignty
2. National economy
3. Nationhood

Question 17

How can Global influence the sovereignty

Answer 17

! Principle of non-intervention remains important
! Trend towards multi-level governance
! Not forced upon states!
! Costs and benefits can change
! Sovereignty is not hollowed out, but transformed

Question 18

How can Global influence the nationhood

Answer 18

! Does nationhood lose importance?
! New trans-national identities?
! Resistance identity?

Question 19

How can Global influence the economy

Answer 19

! Lower capacity to intervene in economy
! Capital mobility
! More difficult to tax and to regulate
! Economies not self-sustained but interdependent
! Can heavily constrain governments’ decisions

Question 20

Kendetegn ved Weak post-colonial states

Answer 20

! Low capacity and resources

! Ethnically fragmented

! Few constraints for elites

! Often leads to

! Lacking monopoly of violence and control over territory

! Inability to provide public services

! Inability to make legitimate collective decisions

Question 21

How is the Sovereignty in post-colonial state

Answer 21

! Only formally sovereign
! Dependence on economic aid and donors
! Military (humanitarian) interventions in case of breakdown
! Recent examples: Mali, Iraq, Afghanistan

Question 22

Conclusion: What is The concept of the state

Answer 22

! State concept as ideal type
! Strongly inspired by Western history
! Continuum from ‘failed’ to highly effective Western states
! Globalisation does not challenge the state as such
! Important changes for sovereignty
! Possibly for nationhood
! Most tangible for relationship between state and economy