Theme 3 - The State

Question 1

What is the definition of the state?

Answer 1

A historical institution, emerged in 16th-17th century Europe as a system of centralized rule that succeeded in subordinating all other institutions.

Question 2

The international state :

Answer 2

-A universal form of political organization around the world
-Earliest form was in China (centralized bureaucracy)
-Emergence(Europe 1500-1789), Expansion(Global 1789-19740, Restructuring(1975-2021)

Question 3

What’re the 4 approaches to the state?

Answer 3

*Idealist approach (philosophical)
* Functionalist approach (role/purpose)
* Organizational approach (institutions)
* International approach

Question 4

Define the Idealist approach to the state:

Answer 4

• Proponent: G. W. F Hegel
• Three realms of social life:
• The family, defined by particular altruism, set aside your own interests for the family.
• Civil society, defined by universal egoism ,place your own interests ahead of others.
• The state, defined by universal altruism, set aside own interests for political community. The state thus serves the interests of all in society (this is the ideal)
• The state is an ethical community – it pursues a specific ‘good’: (the common good).
• Weaknesses of the approach:
• Uncritical respect for the state
• Ethical definition: no differentiation between institutions that are part of the state and those that aren’t.

Question 5

Define the functionalist approach to the state:

Answer 5

• Looks at the role / purpose the state serves.
• State’s most important function is the maintenance of social order.
• The state is a set of institutions that upholds order and delivers social stability.
• Neo-Marxists:* Critical of state: the state helps lessen class conflict to ensure the survival of the capitalist system.
• Weakness:
• Definition is too broad: Any institution involved with social order (family, media, church, etc.)is associated with the state.

Question 6

Define the organizational approach to the state:

Answer 6

• State as a set of public institutions
• Responsible for collective organization of social existence
• Funded at Public expense.
• State thus includes branches of government, bureaucracy, military, the courts, social security system etc.
• Makes a distinction between state and civil society.
• State includes government, but government is distinct from the state.

Question 7

Differentiate the state and government, in terms of scope, time, authority and interests.

Answer 7

*Scope of state = Includes everyone
*Scope of government = Managers of the state

*Time of state = Permanent
*Time of government = Temporary

*Authority of state = Neutral authority
*Authority of government = Partisan Authority

*Interest of state = Common good
*Interests of government = Those in power

Question 8

What’re the 5 key features of this approach?

Answer 8

1. The state is sovereign (unrestricted power)
2. The state is an exercise in legitimation (public interest)
3. The state is an instrument of domination (state is defined by its monopoly of the means of legitimate violence –Max Weber)
4. The state is a territorial association (geographically defined jurisdiction)
5. State institutions are public (making and enforcing collective decisions, not private ones)

Question 9

Define the international approach :

Answer 9

• State as actor
• Requires recognition by other state
• State is a “legal person”
• Two faces of the state: Inward-looking, Outward-looking
• State as a “country”:
• Means civil society is considered part of the state
• Classic definition of the state in international law(Montevideo Convention):
• A defined territory
• A permanent population
• An effective government
• The capacity to enter into relations with other states

Question 10

Define the modern state :

Answer 10

• The ‘modern state’ is a coming-together of three big institutions*
  :1. A centralized bureaucratic state
  2. Rule of law
  3. Representative rule / accountability structures.
• Confluence of these three institutions at different time in different regions

Question 11

State and define the different theories when debating the state :

Answer 11

• The pluralist state:
  the state is a ‘referee’ in society.
  Difference between state and government.
  State must be neutral actor.
  Origins in the social contract theory.
• The capitalist state:
  the state cannot be understood separately from the economic structure of society.
  The Marxist view.
• The leviathan state:
  the state pursues separate interests from those of society.
  A self-serving ‘monster’ intent on expansion.
• The patriarchal state:
  some feminists question conventional definitions of the state.
  Liberal feminists have tended to support the pluralist view of the state.
  Radical feminists argue that state power reflects a deeper structure of oppression in the form of patriarchy

Question 12

What’re the different 6 roles of the state?

Answer 12

1. Minimal states
2. Developmental states
3. Social-democratic states
4. Collectivized states
5. Totalitarian states
6. Religious states

Question 13

Explain the minimal state :

Answer 13

• The ideal of classical liberals
• Historic examples: UK and USA during early industrialization of the 1800s
• A negative view of the state – too much state / central authority is oppressive and needs to be kept in its place.
• The value of the state: prevent people from encroaching on the rights and liberties of others.
• The state must provide a framework of peace and order within which citizens can live their lives as they think best.
• Locke – the state is a night watchman
• Three core functions:
  1. Maintain domestic order
  2. Ensure that agreements or contracts between private citizens are enforced
  3. Protection against external attack
• Institutional apparatus: Police force; court system; military.
• Economic, social, cultural, moral and other responsibilities left to individuals / part of civil society.
• New Right: early liberal ideas, especially free market, whilst also being socially conservative.
• ’Push back the frontiers of the state’
• Friedrich von Hayek, Milton Friedman: state intervention reduces competition, efficiency and productivity.

Question 14

Explain the developmental state :

Answer 14

• A developmental state intervenes in the economy with the specific aim of promoting industrial growth and economic development.
• This does not amount to an attempt to replace the market with a socialist system of planning and control.
• BUT is aimed at constructing a partnership between the state and major economic interests.
• Often underpinned by conservative and nationalist priorities.
• Japan & Germany during the earlier parts of the 20thcentury.

Question 15

Explain social-democratic states :

Answer 15

• Developmental states intervene only in order to stimulate the economy.
• Social-democratic states intervene in order to bring about broad social restructuring.
• Based on principles such as fairness, equality and social justice.
• Some states (like Sweden & Austria) have followed both developmental and soc-dem models.
• Shift, from a negative view of the state (a necessary evil) to a positive view.
  *State is viewed as a means to enlarge equality &liberty and to promote social justice.
• The state no longer just creates the broad framework of life but becomes and active participant– help rectify the imbalances and injustices of a market-based economy.
• Focus less on the generation of wealth, and more on the just distribution of wealth.
• Focus on the reduction of poverty and social equality

Question 16

Explain collectivized states :

Answer 16

• Collectivized state - the whole of economic life is under state control (command economy).
• Eg. Communist countries – USSR, former eastern European states (1917-1991)
• Command economies – organized through a system of direct, central planning (Communist Party).
• Based on a fundamental socialist preference for common ownership rather than private property
• The use of state power – to attain this goal of common ownership – suggest a positive attitude to the state.
• This however differs from classical Marxism which envisaged that the state would ‘wither away’.* In the later years of the USSR the state was identified with the interest of the people as a whole.

Question 17

Explain Totalitarian States :

Answer 17

• The most extreme and extensive form of intervention.
• The focus is on the construction of an all-embracing state that penetrates every aspect of human existence: economy, education, culture, religion ,family life, etc.* Eg: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, USSR, Hussein’s Iraq.* Comprehensive process of surveillance and terroristic policing.
• Strict Ideological control*
  Tries to abolish civil society and to do away with the private sphere of life.
• Fascists, for example, wanted to dissolve the individual identity into the group/social identity.
• The advance of human civilization is linked to the state and to the widening of its responsibilities.

Question 18

Explain Religious states :

Answer 18

• In the modern world there is an increasing separation between the civil authority and religious authority – Secularization.
• Since the 1980s there has however been a resurgence of the prominence of religion and its claims within the public realm.
• There has even been the emergence of what we can call religious states.
• These states reject the division between public and private and view religion as the basis of politics.
• Radical religious movements want to seize control of the state and use it as an instrument for moral and spiritual regeneration.
• Pakistan under General Zia-ul-Haq after 1978 and in the establishment of the Islamic State in Iran after1979.
• There are also examples of religiously orientated movements operating in the context of constitutional secularism – AKP in Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.