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extensive lecture notes state, power, and conflict

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Course
State, Power and Conflict (STPC)

Institution
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)

notes that cover all the lectures given for the course state, power, and conflict. from lecture 3 onwards, the notes are transcribed from audio recordings of the lectures, I can't showcase it in 'free showcased pages' but if you sent me a message I can sent you an example of what it looks like furt...

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Uploaded on November 7, 2023
Number of pages 69
Written in 2023/2024
Type Class notes
Professor(s) Politics
Contains All classes

politics
ideologies
international relations
comparative politics

Institution
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
Education
Politicologie
Course
State, Power and Conflict (STPC)

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1. Summary - Literature summary state, power and conflict
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State, power, and conﬂict

Lecture 1: poli.cs and poli.cal ideology

Laswell
- distribu/on about power and resources
- rather organiza/on about compe//on, conﬂict, who gets the piece of the cake

we can think of poli/cs in diﬀerent dimensions, as an arena, process or output

poli/cs
- Results from disagreement among people
- Is the resolu/on of conﬂict
- Sets the rules of society
o To prevent anarchy, conﬂicts, incen/vize good behavior-> creates peaceful
way to act on conﬂict
- Is the exercise of power
o Decides, implements and enforces the rules
- Is the public alloca/on of goods/values
o Distribu/on of resources, values accepted by ci/zens (marriage, equality), by
puJng values such as gay marriage into law they become widely accepted
- Is the compe//on and coopera/on among individuals, groups, or states pursuing
their interest

public Private
Poli/cal Non-poli/cal
State, government Trade, families, businesses, etc.
Public realm: in the public interest; work, Personal realm: family and domes/c life
arts, culture etc.

What is poli/cal science
- Poli/cal science is oQen understood as the science of government, as aﬀairs of the
state
- But…
o The state is rooted in society
o The state maintains a par/cular social order
o Poli/cs outside the state is also important
o Interac/ons between the state and society are at the core of poli/cs
- Hence to scien/ﬁcally understand poli/cs, one has to examine the en/re fabric of
social rela/ons of coopera/on and conﬂict between individual, groups, and classes

Studying poli/cs
Philosophical
- Cannot be answered objec/vely
- No factual prove, only philosophical arguments
- Deals with norma/ve ques/ons (what is allowed or what is good)
- How should society/poli/cs be organized

,Empirical tradi/on
- Learn about nature, func/oning of poli/cal world,
- Theore/cal arguments, with evidence
- Deals with descrip/ve and analy/cal ques/ons
- How and why is poli/cs organized in a speciﬁc way

Compara/ve poli/cs
- Studies diﬀerences in poli/cal socie/es, what happens in countries

Interna/onal rela/ons
- Studying compe//on coopera/on diplomacy between states

What is poli/cal ideology
- “a more or less coherent set of ideas that provides a basis for poli/cal ac/on,
whether this is intended to preserve, modify or overthrow the exis/ng systems of
power rela/onships”
- All ideologies oﬀer an account of
o Exis/ng order, how does the world look like, how does it func/on
o The desired future, the ideal world, ambi/on, goal, alterna/ve to exis/ng
world
o The roadmap, outlines a plan on how go from current state of world to get to
the future, strategy

The big three
- Liberalism
o Western poli/cal world
- Conserva/sm
o Posi/oned against liberalism, seeks to preserve exis/ng poli/cal order
- Socialism
o Poli/cal leQ
- There are many more and combina/ons such as feminism, anarchism, etc.
- The big three labels can be misleading but most poli/cal ideas can be related to
these three

Poli/cal ideology: liberalism
- Starts with the individual ci/zen, more important than any collec/ve
- Freedom is main purpose, individuals are born equal
- Power needs the consent of ci/zens for the state
- Individualism
o Supreme importance of the human individual
- Freedom
o Individuals should enjoy maximum possible liberty
- Equality
o Individuals are born equal, in terms of moral worth. Society based on quality
of opportunity and meritocracy (government or the holding of power by
people selected according to merit (quality of being good or worthy)

, - Reason
o The world has a ra/onal structure, which can be uncovered through reason
and cri/cal inquiry. Focus on progress
- Tolerance
o Believe in pluralism and diversity of thought and beliefs
- Consent:
o Authority should be based on willing agreement, a contract (consent by
governed)
- Cons/tu/onalism: belief in rule of law; ensure (by means of checks and balances)
that power does not corrupt or gets misused)

Poli/cal ideology: conserva/sm
- An/ revolu/onary, seek to cherish the wisdom of the past
- Learn from experience and history
- Tradi/on:
o Desire to conserve; respect for accumulated wisdom of the past, and
prac/ces and ins/tu/ons that have endured the test of /me
- Pragma/sm
o Belief in limita/ons of human ra/onality; faith in experience and history and
in ‘what works’
- Human imperfec/on
o pessimis/c view of human nature (morally corrupt); strong focus on law and
order
- Organicism
o There is a fabric of society (families, communi/es, the na/on) which is key for
stability and upheld by shared values/common culture.
- Hierarchy
o Grada/ons in social posi/on/status are natural and inevitable, but foster
responsibility of care for the less fortunate
- Authority
o Top-down authority provides clarity and social cohesion
- Property
o Property ownership is vital as it gives people security and independence from
government

Poli/cal ideology: socialism
- Cares about the collec/ve rather than individual
- Should not be compe//on between individuals
- World view as social class, against a capitalist economic system
- Community
o Humans are linked by the existence of a common humanity. Importance of
social interac/ons and collec/ve bodies. Individual behavior explained in
terms of social factors
- Solidarity
o Humans bound by comradeship. Coopera/on over compe//on. Focus on
collec/vism
- Social equality

, o The primacy of equality over other values
- Need
o Material redistribu/on on the basis of need (not merit)
- Social class
o analyzing society in terms of income/wealth (social class). Speciﬁc interest in
the oppressed/exploited working class
- common ownership
o the aim of common ownership is to harness material resources to the
common good. Private property may lead to social division/selﬁshness

Beyond ideology
- Francis Fukuyama’s argument
o aQer the end of the cold war and the fall of communism, liberal and capitalist
values would be universally accepted
o end of the ideological debate: western liberal democracy has triumphed
o “the universaliza/on of western liberal democracy as the ﬁnal form of human
government”
- Anthony Giddens’ argument
o The third way: reconciling right-wing and leQ-wing poli/cs
o Synthesizing center-right economic policies and center-leQ social policies
o Re-evalua/ng poli/cal policies due to doubts about: (1) the economic viability
of the state and (2) economic interven/onist policies (Keynesianism)

Dimensions of the poli/cal conﬂict
- Ideologies allows us to create poli/cal landscapes
- Parochial: seek to restrict the poli/cal community to their own group
- Cosmopolitan: seeks to include everyone

,Populism: an ideology
- “an ideology that considers society to be ul/mately separated into two
homogeneous and antagonis/c groups, ‘the pure people’ versus the ‘corrupt elite’
and which argues that poli/cs should be an expression of the volonte generale
(general will of the people)
- Thin centered because it is oQen linked with the main ideologies
o Populism can be easily combined with very diﬀerent (thin and full) other
ideologies including communism, ecologism, na/onalism or socialism”
- Opposites of populism: eli/sm and pluralism
- But according to others, populism is beeer understood as discourse
o An “an/ elite discourse in the name of the sovereign people”
o “populism is best treated not as a dis/nct type or style of leadership, or even
an ideological viewpoint, as is oQen assumed but rather as a discourse about
the legi/macy of democra/c governance that can be adopted by actors across
the en/re ideological spectrum”
o This discourse is an/-elite/an/-establishment and focuses on popular
sovereignty
- Right wing: na/onalism and na/vism, elite they are opposed to is the cosmopolitan,
opposi/on against migra/on
- LeQ wing: socialist values, corrupt elites are capitalist elites, mainly in southern
Europe and La/n America
- Right wing is the dominant form found in northern and western Europe
- In common opposed to elite and pluralism

Take-home message
- Poli/cs is in our nature as we tend to have disagreements
- Poli/cs consists of binding rules for society to resolve conﬂicts of public nature
- Ideology as a coherent set of poli/cal ideas that structures poli/cal thinking and
electoral compe//on
- Populism as an ideology contras/ng the good people and the corrupt elite

Lecture 2: state, na.on, na.on-state

What is a state

Modern states may appear as a natural thing but are products from society and poli/cs

States have evolved signiﬁcantly over /me as a product of history

States are dominant form of poli/cal organiza/on, bring order and structure

What is a state:
- “the state is a poli/cal associa/on that establishes sovereign jurisdic/on within
deﬁned territorial borders, and exercises authority though a set of permanent
ins/tu/ons”

Key features of the state

, 1. The state is sovereign
a. the highest power, stands above all other groups in society, may s/ll be
dependent on big countries, such as small countries (San Marino)
2. State ins/tu/ons are public
a. Based on public ins/tu/ons, it concerns society, sets rules for society, states
ﬁnance themselves with taxes
3. The state is an exercise in legi/ma/on
a. In the interest of ci/zens, righgul exercise of power (legi/ma/on),
4. The state is an instrument of domina/on
a. Claims legal monopoly of violence (police, military to ensure safety of
ci/zens) (EU does not have this)
5. The state is a territorial associa/on
a. All laws and power state exercises, it exercises across speciﬁc geographic
area

What is a state
- An idealist approach to the state
o The state is an ethical community underpinned by mutual sympathy
(‘universal altruism’)
- Idealist: State where people live in happiness in peace, community of people friendly
to another with mutual sympathy
- Associated with roman/cism
- Weakness: based on community, we cannot clearly deﬁne boundaries (which
ins/tu/ons are part of state?)
- Associated with thinkers such as Hegel

What is a state
- A func/onalist approach to the state
o Focuses on the role or purpose of the state
o Main func/on of the state is to maintain social order and deliver social
stability
o Weakness: any ins/tu/on that maintains order (e.g. family, mass media etc.)
is associated with the state
o Associated with neo-Marxist thinkers such as Antonio Gramsci
- Func/onal
o Role or purpose of state in society, maintain social order, prevent anarchy and
chaos
o Adopted by neo Marxist thinkers
o Weakness, again diﬃcult to draw borders

What is a state
- An organiza/onal approach to the state
o Most common perspec/ve on the state
o A set of ins/tu/ons that are recognizable as public in that they are
responsible for the collec/ve organiza/on of social existence and are publicly
funded
o the apparatus of government in its broadest sense

, o strength of this approach: we can dis/nguish between the state and civil
society
o weakness of this deﬁni/on: too narrow?
- Organiza/onal: state as an ins/tu/on/organiza/on, publicly funded through taxes
which builds apparatus of government,
- Civil society, business outside of state
- Simple, can separate state from other realms of society,

What is a state
- Interna/onal approach to the state:
o Focuses on state within interna/onal rela/ons
o State as deﬁned in interna/onal law (e.g. trea/es):
§ Deﬁned territory
§ Permanent popula/on
§ Eﬀec/ve government
§ Capacity to enter into rela/ons with other states
o Concept of state to the concept of country
- Looks at role of states in interna/onal systems
- Needs to be recognized by other states as a state
- Comes close to the view of a state as a country, with speciﬁc territory and popula/on
- Discipline interna/onal rela/ons

What is a state
- Statehood depends on formal recogni/on of other states or interna/onal recogni/on
(UN)
- Clash of two principles with Kosovo
o Territorial integrity (Serbia applies this) (territory should be respected,
sovereign control over territory, no other group interferes with the rule over
that
o Right to self determina/on (Kosovo -) (people should have the right of self
government)

What is a state
- The origins of state are in 16/17th century
- peace of Westphalia which ended long period of war in Europe, it created a new
poli/cal order
- only in the 19th century, the state evolved into the na/on-state

why did the state come into existence
- Charles /lly
o States came into existence to be beeer able to ﬁght wars
o This increased the need for systems of taxa/on and administra/on
o “War made the state and the state made war”
o states are the result of war
o rulers want to expand their power
o organiza/on of state helped extract money from the popula/on
o the modern state is closely linked to rulers ambi/on to wage war

, - Friedrich Engels
o the state is a tool used by the emerging bourgeois class
o communist manifesto
o states result from the transi/on of the fraudulent system
- Michael Mann
o the state as a means to combine ideological, economic, military and poli/cal
forms of power
o the modern state has been successfully combining diﬀerent forms of power
such as economic and military, helped the ruling protect themselves against
the common people
- states have evolved because they were successful concentra/ng power and therefore
become the poli/cal organiza/on

what should the state do
- minimalist state
o the state should do very liele in order not to curb individual freedom
o takes cues from liberalism
o the state has three core func/ons
§ to maintain domes/c order
§ to protect against outside aeacks
§ to enforce contracts
- liberalism advocates for minimalist state, should provide security, ensure rule of law,
protect the individual rights, protect property
- state should intervene as liele as possible in peoples life
- john Locke
o nightmanswatch
o services are only needed when the order of society is threatened

what should the state do
- social democra/c state
o the state should intervene to ensure equality and solidarity
o takes cues from socialism
o at its core is the welfare state in which the state takes primary responsibility
for the social welfare of its ci/zens
- socialism advocates social democra/c state
o much more ac/ve role, ensure social jus/ce
- welfare state, redistribute wealth from rich to poor, care for the unfortunate (jobless,
sick), state exercising solidarity with poor etc.
- Keynes
o State should intervene with economy to balance the economy and mi/gate
the risk of the market for peoples life

What should the state do
- Totalitarian state:
o An all-encompassing system of poli/cal rule, involving persuasive ideological
manipula/on and brutality
- Totalitarian state

, o Inﬂuences and penetrates every aspect of human existence (Nazi regime,
Stalinism)
o Total control, state surveillance, manipula/on, no civil society
- Religious state
o A territorial poli/cal unit that serves to enact religious principles
o Impose religion principles over the state
o State intervenes quite extensively in private life’s of people
o E.g. Islamic state

What is the na/on-state
- A sovereign poli/cal associa/on within which ci/zenship and na/onality overlap
o The na/on-state is a rela/vely modern concept (but a potent one)
o What then are na/ons? And how does this relate to na/onalism
o Ci/zens are deﬁned by the membership to the na/on

What is a na/on?
- What does it mean to be Dutch, Bri/sh or German
- Very diﬃcult to deﬁne because na/ons comprise objec/ve and subjec/ve features
- Objec/ve
o The na/on is a cultural en/ty (“a group of people bound together by a
common language, religion, history and tradi/ons”)
o Only becomes powerful idea when the na/on should be able to rule itself as a
sovereign state
- Subjec/ve
o The na/on is a psycho-poli/cal construct (“a group of people dis/nguished by
a shared loyalty or aﬀec/on in the form of patrio/sm”)
- Poli/cal
o “a group of people who regard themselves as natural poli/cal community,
classically expressed through the quest for sovereign statehood”

What is a na/on
- Na/ons as cultural communi/es
o Na/ons as natural or organic en//es that can be traced to ancient /mes and
will always exist
o Na/ons are historically embedded and rooted in common cultural heritage
o Prominent feature of herder’s thinking

What is a na/on
- Na/ons as poli/cal communi/es
o Na/ons are poli/cal, not ethnic communi/es
o Shared ci/zenship as a binding factor
o They are based on popular sovereignty expressed though a common will
(volonte general)
o Prominent feature of thinking of Rousseau
- Poli/cal communi/es

, o Ci/zens are shared by common ci/zenship, don’t have same ancient roots
and common descent but instead share same cons/tu/ons and the will to
form a na/on

What is a na/on
- Na/ons as imagined communi/es
o Ties in with an understanding of the na/on as a poli/cal community
o The na/on exists as a mental image rather than as a genuine community
o A common iden/ty can be sustained without face-to-face interac/on
o Na/ons as imagined ar/ﬁces, constructed through educa/on, media, etc.
o Benedict Anderson
- Imagined communi/es
o Na/ons are not objec/ve real exis/ng communi/es but largely a product of
imagina/on

What is na/onalism
- Dic/onary deﬁni/on: “loyalty and devo/on to a na/on; especially: a sense of
na/onal consciousness exal/ng one na/on above all others and placing primary
emphasis on promo/on of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other
na/ons or suprana/onal groups”
- State and na/on should form coherent union

What is na/onalism
- Liberal na/onalism
o Commitment to the principle of na/onal self-determina/on (na/onal
independence and democra/c rule).
o Each and every na/on has right to freedom and self determina/on
o Based on liberal ins/tu/on
- Conserva/ve na/onalism
o Mostly concerned with the promise of social cohesion and public order
(rather than with universal self-determina/on). Defense of a shared past and
ins/tu/ons
o Main focus that na/on should create social cohesion and should avoid threats
to that cohesion, value tradi/on and preserve exis/ng social order, na/on is
concept that can preserve social order
- Expansionist (pan-) na/onalism
o Aggressive and militaris/c adherence to na/onalist sen/ment. The na/on
overrides everything. Undivided na/on in terms of territory to be obtained
through conquest
o State and border do not overlap, this form has idea that all member of the
na/on should be included in the state, realized though military and
aggressiveness, na/on should rule everything, obtained through conquest
- An/-colonial na/onalism
o Adherence to the na/on as an independent unit from colonial rule, to a
struggle for independence. Rooted in many diﬀerent doctrines.
o Linked to liberal na/onalism
o Western instated this form to its colonies

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