Week 6: the nation state in the age of globalization + Caramani ch. 4 & 24 Flashcards
Four main features of modern states:
- Monopoly of legitimate violence
- Territoriality
- Sovereignty
- Political community
Monopoly of legitimate violence
Legitimacy to use or authorize the use of physical force
Requires the violence being legitimate: based on law
Territoriality
- 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
Sovereignty
- Ultimate authority over its territory and population
- No interference from other countries
Political community
- 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
Citizenship
- Legal relation between individual and the state
- Equality before the law: purpose is equalizing, universal
Nationhood
- 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
Failed state:
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)
State development: different states were formed in different ways. Five patterns:
- Through absolutist kingships
- Through kingship-facing judges and representative bodies
- Through confederation or federation
- Through conquest and/or unification
- Through independence
Three main phases of state development:
- Consolidation of rule - 12th and 17th centuries
- Rationalization of rule - the ways which power is exercised
- Expansion of rule - 1880s - 1980s
Consolidation of rule - 12th and 17th centuries
- 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
Rationalization of rule
- 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
Expansion of rule
- 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.
Transition from the modern to post-modern state, dimensions:
- 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
Several ways (scholars) of looking at the relation between states and globalisation
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.
Definition of state by Weber:
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.
But: there is a diversity in the additional features of a state, which is a main theme of comparative politics. Differences in:
- 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
Nations are imagined political community
- 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
Globalization is a contested concept. General agreement on:
Globalization:
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
Types of state and globalization:
- Modern state
- Post-modern state
- Weak post-colonial state
- Modernizing state
Modern state under globalization
- 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
Post-modern state & globalization
- 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
Weak post-colonial state
- 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
Modernizing state
The modernizing state combine features of the modern, postmodern and the weak post-colonial state
Supranational governance
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.
Modern state is based on two kinds of community:
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.
