Week 3

Question 1

How does Weber define ‘The State’? (most widely used defintion)

Answer 1

a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of a legitimate use of physical force within a given territory
* Accept the state as an authoritative force (reciprocal legitimacy)

The modern state has a rational-legal authority: meaning it makes decisions based on rules and regulations, whereas pre-modern states governed on fear and favour
* Acts as an independent organism that is not influenced by elite groups

Question 2

How to distinguish the Modern State from pre-Modern States? (According to Weber)

Answer 2

• Earlier forms of political authority relied on a leader’s charisma
• No clear separation between private & public spheres
• The legal-rational framework of the state, by contrast, was predicated upon impartial institutions that governed without fear or favour.

Question 3

How to judge a state’s strength/weakness? (Fukuyama)

Answer 3

through the state’s “ability to plan/execute policies and to enforce laws cleanly and transparently” (transparency is necessary for accountability)

Question 4

What are the prerequisites for political order? (Robert Bates)

Answer 4

Prerequisites: Argues that rulers must: “choose to employ the means of coercion to protect the creation of wealth, rather than to prey upon it, and when private citizens choose to set weapons aside and to devote their time instead to the production of wealth and the enjoyment of leisure”
* Ongoing Tension between Political Freedom & Order: Too much freedom ⇒ no order ; too much order ⇒ no freedom
* Political Order & Econ Growth: Creating/producing wealth is linked to the importance of a strong, impartial state and the emergence of an upwardly-mobile society (reinforces modernization theory’s strong base/middle class)

Question 5

Neo-Marxist View

Answer 5

The role of the state: represents an agglomeration of political and economic elite power (cluster), and the power of key interest groups within society.
* Argues that all state institutions are extractive

Question 5

Debate over the role of the state:

Answer 5

Neo-Marxist View & Neo-Weberian View

Question 6

Neo-Weberian View

Answer 6

The role of the state: state is an independent actor with its own goals & interests, separate from those of other actors.
* Argues that all state institutions are either extractive or inclusive

Question 7

According to Weber, what are Inclusive & Extractive Institutions?

Answer 7

Inclusive Institutions: seek to represent most or all citizens, and promote development
Extractive Institutions: help elites extract wealth and “fail to create the incentives needed for people to save, invest, and innovate” (p186)

Do state institutions follow the ‘rules of the game’ and govern impartially for society’s greater good? ⇒ NW argue that it depends on whether the state institutions are Inclusive or Extractive