Week 6: the nation state in the age of globalization + Caramani ch. 4 & 24

Question 1

Four main features of modern states:

Answer 1

1. Monopoly of legitimate violence
2. Territoriality
3. Sovereignty
4. Political community

Question 2

Monopoly of legitimate violence

Answer 2

Legitimacy to use or authorize the use of physical force
Requires the violence being legitimate: based on law

Question 3

Territoriality

Answer 3

• Violence restricted to territory
• Exclusive claim to a portion of the earth: to police and defend its territory
• Important symbolic value: shape of country as symbol of a state

Question 4

Sovereignty

Answer 4

• Ultimate authority over its territory and population
• No interference from other countries

Question 5

Political community

Answer 5

• Unity of people exercising rule an people subjected to that rule
• Minority of political elite (through elections) that has decision making power
• Inherent asymmetry between the people and political elite
• Two means of unity in population: citizenship and nationhood

Question 6

Citizenship

Answer 6

• Legal relation between individual and the state
• Equality before the law: purpose is equalizing, universal

Question 7

Nationhood

Answer 7

• Many modern states are nation-states

Nation:
- Etymology: has something to do with shared biological heritage
- Modern view: imagined and socially constructed communities. Symbols, narrative, national holidays, shared history
- Results in a shared sense of belonging, pride, trust. Minimizes differences between people
- “We have made italy, now we must make the Italians” -> socialization process

Question 8

Failed state:

Answer 8

A state that cannot fulfill its most basic responsibility (security). No effective control over territory, no legitimacy.

Common used measure for failed states: fragile states index (Twelve indicators)

Question 9

State development: different states were formed in different ways. Five patterns:

Answer 9

1. Through absolutist kingships
2. Through kingship-facing judges and representative bodies
3. Through confederation or federation
4. Through conquest and/or unification
5. Through independence

Question 10

Three main phases of state development:

Answer 10

1. Consolidation of rule - 12th and 17th centuries
2. Rationalization of rule - the ways which power is exercised
3. Expansion of rule - 1880s - 1980s

Question 11

Consolidation of rule - 12th and 17th centuries

Answer 11

• Decrease of polities
• Winning terrain with wars, sometimes with marriage
• “States make war and wars make states”
• War making states borrow extensively,
• More and more direct rule within states
• More and more regulated relations between states:
  Rise of diplomacy
  Borders becoming more clearly defined
• Over time: states became larger, more visible and more stable

Question 12

Rationalization of rule

Answer 12

• From cooperation between various subordinate, but privileged power-holders
• To a situation in which rulers started to avail themselves of agents and agencies, building bureaucracies.
• Three aspects: centralization (dispossessing lower people), hierarchy (commands from above) and function (internal differentiation to optimize for specific functions).
• World becomes more and more efficient and predictable:
  Fixed rules and competences, technical training etc.
  Agents selected on competences

Question 13

Expansion of rule

Answer 13

• For centuries, states had two main concerns:
  Between states: secure own territory and pursue own interests
  Within states: maintain public order and effectiveness of laws
• Between 1880 and 1980’s: activities of states enlarged:
  Political parties entered the scene -> with promises and interests of certain groups
  Government entities have the tendency to grow naturally
  Supporting the economy: education, welfare
• For a long period of time: state economies were segregated, under globalization economies, politics and social dimensions became more internationally integrated.

Question 14

Transition from the modern to post-modern state, dimensions:

Answer 14

• Government: modern state is centralized. Post-modern state is multilevel governance. Massive rise of international government organizations
• Sovereignty: modern state has constitutional independence, with state having supreme authority. Post modern state is increasingly regulated by supranational authorities (EU).
• Nationhood: modern state has a high level of cohesion. Post modern state has a less coherent community, increased diversity.
• Economy: modern state has a segregated national economy. Post modern state has major parts of economy embedded in cross-border networks. Trade and financial globalization

Question 15

Several ways (scholars) of looking at the relation between states and globalisation

Answer 15

Retreat scholars:
- Retreat of the state, sate has lost power
- State has become unnatural and dysfunctional in an increasingly borderless world
- Globalization erodes the power of states

State centric scholars:
- Nation state remains in charge of globalization, some states have even managed to expand their capacities for regulation and control
- Globalization tendencies have been exaggerated

There is a more pragmatic position: globalization made states stronger in certain areas, and weaker in others.

Question 16

Definition of state by Weber:

Answer 16

Points to administrative and legal order, rule of law. Compulsory organization with a territorial basis. Use of force is legitimate, only if permitted by the state or prescribed by it.

Question 17

But: there is a diversity in the additional features of a state, which is a main theme of comparative politics. Differences in:

Answer 17

• The role of law: differences in what can be arranged by law, what is in the constitution
• Centralized organization
  unity and coherence is important. Higher sources of power place boundaries on lower. Lower sources can specify products.
  Mostly for managerial purposes, not necessarily legal
• Distinction between state and society
  Where does (civil) society start?
• Religion and market
  State became increasingly secular.
  Role of private law
  Economic system and role.
  Failed states usually see economic resources used for own purposes
• The public sphere
  Hinge between state and society.
  The ability to observe activities of the state, to communicate with others about them, to criticize them and deliver input to them
• Burden of conflict
  Different cleavages, can lead to sectionalism

Question 18

Nations are imagined political community

Answer 18

• Imagined, because members will never know most of their fellow members or meet them. Yet in the mind lives the image of their communion
• It is imagined as limited, because even the largest of them, has finite boundaries, beyond which lie other nations
• It is imagined as sovereign, because the concept was born when enlightenment and revolution destroyed the legitimacy of the divinely ordained hierarchical dynastic realm
• It is imagined as a community because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail, the nation is always conceived of as a deep horizontal comradeship

Question 19

Globalization is a contested concept. General agreement on:
Globalization:

Answer 19

The expansion and intensification of all kinds of social relations across borders - economic, political, cultural and so on.

It is uneven in terms of cross-national intensity, geographical scope, and national and local depth
Driven by various forces: government, corporation, popular groups

Question 20

Types of state and globalization:

Answer 20

• Modern state
• Post-modern state
• Weak post-colonial state
• Modernizing state

Question 21

Modern state under globalization

Answer 21

• Centralized rule, rule of law, legitimate use of force within a defined territory
• A segregated, self-sustained national economy
• State has supreme political authority. Non-intervention from other states
• A people making up a community of citizens. Community of sentiment based on cultural and historical bonds. High level of cohesion

Question 22

Post-modern state & globalization

Answer 22

• Multilevel governance, international context important
• Identities less exclusively national. Less coherent
• Less self-sustained economies, deep integration in cross-border networks
• Mutual intervention from and to other states. Regulation by supranational authority

Question 23

Weak post-colonial state

Answer 23

• Inefficient and corrupt government. Rules based on coercion, rather than rule of law. Monopoly on the legitimate use of violence not established
• Importance of local/ethnic cultures. Weak bonds of loyalty with the state
• Economy is heterogeneous: traditional agriculture, urban sector, fragments of modern industry. Strong dependence on the world economy
• Constitutional independence compared with negotiated intervention by international society. Special treatment: weak states cannot reciprocate help or support

Question 24

Modernizing state

Answer 24

The modernizing state combine features of the modern, postmodern and the weak post-colonial state

Question 25

Supranational governance

Answer 25

governance, in contrast with government, refers to activities everywhere (local, national, regional, global) involving regulation and control. Supranational refers to some institutions that have the power to write rules for member states.

Question 26

Modern state is based on two kinds of community:

Answer 26

Community of citizenship
- Relation between citizens and the state: political, social and economic rights and obligations
- Under globalization -> not only relationship with the state. But also with international treaties, giving rights

Community of sentiment
- Common language and common cultural and historical identity
- Under globalization -> more individualistic. Reinforces identities above and below the nation.