Politics and The State Flashcards
What are the 3 main characteristics of the state?
- Involves territorial boundaries
- Consists of complex set of institutions that wield political power (courts, police, educational system, elected legislature, the bureaucracy etc)
- Is defined in terms of power
What is the sovereign state?
In theory it’s:
1. The highest form of authority in their territory
2. Institution claiming a “monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force” (Max Weber)
3. No state has the right to tell another state what to do
In practice faces challenges from both inside and outside its borders that limit its autonomy
What is the difference between de jure and the facto sovereignity?
the legal right to rule X the actual ability to wield political power
What are the definitions of the typologies of the state based on how much they intervene in society and the economy?
Night-watchman state - minimal state government
Developmental state - interventionist state government
What are the definitions of the typologies of the state based on the degree to which their political leaders are subject to the will of the people?
Liberal democracies
Illiberal democracies
Authoritarian states
Totalitarian states
What is a night-watchman state?
Ensures internal and external security
Plays small role in civil society
Allows the economic market to operate relatively unhindered
Primary duty is to protect the individuals rights to life, liberty, and property
Doesn’t promote social programs or institutes a welfare state
Influenced classical liberal thought
Popular with libertarians and the New Right
What is a developmental state?
Strong relationship with private economic institutions to promote economic development
Government efforts to secure greater social and economic equality and development
Welfare state
Has been popular in East Asia since WWII
What is a liberal democracy?
Eg.: Canada, USA, India
Free and fair elections and universal suffrage
High degree of personal liberty and protection of individual rights
Can lead to frustration/anger
What is an illiberal democracy?
Eg.: Russia, Malaysia
Hold regular elections but opposition parties are at a distinct disadvantage
Little protection of rights and liberties
State controls the means of communications and can sometimes try to control content and access to internet (eg.: pro-Kremlin posts)
What is an authoritarian state?
Eg.: China, Saudi Arabia
No fair elections
Political rulers lack accountability
The political elite is centered around a group or an individual
What is a totalitarian state?
Eg.: Nazi German, Stalinist USSR, Maoist China
Extreme intervention in economic and social life
Absence of public/private distinction
Public repression through violence
What is pluralism?
It’s a theory of the state by Robert Dahl (1963) -
1. Society comprises many competing groups all jockeying for political, social & economic influence
2. What governments do reflects the balance of power of those groups; the state regulates, mediates between these groups
3. No one group is predominant
4. Role of the state is to regulate and mediate between these groups
5. Interest groups
a. Organization for defense or promotion of an
interest or cause
What are Sectional groups?
Interest groups which protect the interests of their
members; e.g.: unions (CUPE), business groups (Chambers of Commerce; the Business Council of Canada)
What are cause groups?
Interest groups which promote a particular group or
ideal; e.g.: Greenpeace
What is neo-corporatism?
Theory of the state that says that -
- Incorporation of economic interests into decision-making process
- Unlike pluralism, doesn’t see all groups as having equal opportunities to be heard
- Special attention paid to economic elites
