The state, Nation, Sovereignty and globalisation

Question 0

What are the five key features of the state?

Answer 0

• The state controls absolute sovereignty - has the ability to exercise unrestricted power; it is above all other institutions
• Its institutions are public - these bodies make and reinforce collective decisions and are funded by the public
• It has legitimation - decisions are usually accepted as binding on all citizens, as its legislation is seen to be in the best interests of society as a whole
• It has domination - the state possesses coercive power to make sure laws are obeyed (Weber’s theory of the monopoly of violence)
• It has territorial association - it exercises its power within a geographically defined area and in international matters is treated as an autonomous area.

Question 1

How can the state be defined?

Answer 1

Broadly, the state is defined as the political association that has sovereign jurisdiction within a defined territorial area - and it can wield influence through a series of institutions

Question 2

What, broadly, unites a nation?

Answer 2

A collection of political, cultural and psychological factors

• Culture: People are bound by common language, common religion, common history and shared traditions
• Political: A group of people who consider themselves to be a political community - they possess a civic consciousness - Palestinians
• Psychologically - a nation is distinguished by the fact that a group of people have shared loyalties and patriotism (sometimes)

Question 3

Define the nation-state

Answer 3

The nation state is another form of political association - it is an autonomous political community and it has both features of citizenship and nationality bound together. Never existed in a pure form; always an ethnic and cultural mix. Based on the concepts of loyalty, allegiance and unity

Question 4

What is the liberal perspective on the state?

Answer 4

• State = neutral arbiter, arbitrating between competing interests and groups, guaranteeing social order. Liberals view the state as a necessary evil.
• Hobbes

Question 5

What is the Marxist perspective of the state?

Answer 5

• State is a medium of class oppression
• Ruling class allows relative autonomy in order to maintain stability in a system that supports unequal class power.
• Marx, Engels, Gramsci, Poulantzas

Question 6

What is the democratic socialist perspective of the state?

Answer 6

• The state exists for the common good, is able to step in and deal with injustices of the class system.
• Rousseau, Fourier

Question 7

What is the Conservative perspective of the state?

Answer 7

• Favour a strong state that is able to protect society from disorder, the state provides much needed authority and discipline
• Burke

Question 9

What is the definition of sovereignty?

Answer 9

Sovereignty can be defined as absolute and unlimited power

Question 10

What is the first principle of the British Constitution?

Answer 10

Parliament in Westminster is the supreme law-making body in Britain - A.V. Dicey wrote “Parliament has the right to make or unmake any law whatever”

Question 11

What are the principles of legal supremacy?

Answer 11

Parliament can:

• Create legislation that cannot be overturned by any other authority
• Legislate on any subject or issue that it chooses
• Ensure that no current parliament can create legislation that will hinder the first two points, as far as a future government in concern

Question 12

Why are the arguments that Parliament has lost its sovereignty weak?

Answer 12

Parliament retains the power to:
- Abolish the devolved parliaments and take their powers back to Westminster

• Leave the EU and repeal any EU law it wants to remove

Question 13

What is the pluralist perspective of the state?

Answer 13

The view is liberal - where the state is considered to be an honest broker that mediates various interests, promotes compromise and attempts to take a longer term view

Question 14

What is the elitist perception of the state?

Answer 14

Behind any liberal democracy is a ruling elite. Political power always lies in their hands

Question 15

What is the pluralist perspective of the state?

Answer 15

The view is liberal - where the state is considered to be an honest broker that mediates various interests, promotes compromise and attempts to take a longer term view

Question 16

What is the elitist perception of the state?

Answer 16

Behind any liberal democracy is a ruling elite. Political power always lies in their hands

Question 17

What is functionalism?

Answer 17

Functionalism is built on two principles: The application of scientific method to the objective social world, and use of an analogy between the individual organism and society

Question 18

What are the key features of the state?

Answer 18

• State institutions are public and not private; which are responsible for both making and enforcing decisions
• The state is an exercise in legitimation - any decision that the state makes is deemed to be binding on all members of society
• State is an instrument of domination - it can use coercion to make sure individuals in society comply with laws - Weber calls this legitimate violence, which the state has a monopoly on
• The state is also a territorial association

Question 19

What is the relationship between the government and the state?

Answer 19

• The state is more extensive than government, as government is only part of the state - the state includes all public institutions
• The state is permanent and governments are temporary, systems of government can also change, but the state continues
• The state’s authority is brought into operation through the state - government perpetuates the state
• The state is impersonal in its authority - state officials are neutral
• State represents the permanent interests of society and acts for the common good - government can cater partisan interestd

Question 20

what is organic theory?

Answer 20

Organic theory likens the state to a living creature - it takes a holistic view of all the components of the state, claiming that it cannot be understood simply by looking at its constituent parts, but by the total organisation or organism, which helps explain interconnectivity

Question 21

What are the two key alternatives to contract theory as a basis of political obligation

Answer 21

• Teleological - duty of citizens is to respect the state and obey it on the basis of the benefits that the state offers the individual - political obligation derives from common interest (Rousseau). Utilitarianism - suggesting that citizens obey the government on the basis of the greatest happiness for the greatest number”
• Natural duty - political obligation is seen as a natural duty, whereby citizens are bound to obey on moral grounds (i.e. Socrates). Associated with Tory thinkers who believe society is held together by mutual obligations and responsibilities

Question 22

What are the three essential elements of social contract theory?

Answer 22

• The state of nature - a state of war, a stateless society, Hobbes = ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’
• State of nature transformed by individuals’ desires to escaper from it
• In entering into the social contract, citizens will obey and respect the state.

Question 23

What is the New Right perspective of the state?

Answer 23

• State has its own interests, separate from society as a whole.
• Protecting the interests of the state often interferes and impedes economic performance.
• New Right theorists believe the state is non-legitimate
• Britten, Niskanen

Question 24

What is the feminist perspective of the state?

Answer 24

Essentially they view the state as patriarchal, which aims to exclude or subordinate women

Question 25

What is the anarchist perspective of the state?

Answer 25

The state is a form of legalised oppression that is run by a ruling elite, whose sole aim is to protect their property and their privileges

Question 26

What is the neo-pluralist perspective of the state?

Answer 26

Modern state is more complex and less responsive than classical pluralist interpretations. State is still an arbiter, but a deformed polyarchy exists.

Question 27

What is the importance of the social contract theory?

Answer 27

Without social contract, there would be a situation of indefinite civil war. In exchange for some sovereignty, individuals create a sovereign body which provides orderly and stable existence.

Question 28

What are the principles behind the organic society?

Answer 28

Likens the state to an organic creature; cannot be understood without a holistic view. Two principles:

• Teleological obligation - political obligation derives from common interest; utilitarian - Greatest happiness for the greatest number
• Natural Duty - citizens are bound to obey the law on moral grounds ie socrates. conservative - burkean, mutual obligations

Question 29

Three elements of social contract theory?

Answer 29

• avoid the state of nature
• Sovereign power will be absolute, and an effective shield
• Citizens must obey and recognise the state

Question 30

What is the pluralist state?

Answer 30

Liberal. State is a referee or neutral arbiter. Bound by social contract. Schwarzmantel, 1994 - “state is a servant of society and not its master”
Lindbolm and Galbraith, neo-pluralists = state has own interests, and there is a state elite.

Question 31

What is the Capitalist state?

Answer 31

Criticised by Marx. “The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie”, Lenin = tool for oppression. Later Marx deemed it parasitic, as it would support any class in order to support its survival