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Class notes POLI100 Introduction to Politics
These set of notes focus mainly on the political importance of the state, the politics power and authority of the state as well as traditional Western ideologies.
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Political Science NotesThe Political Importance of the State
● As the highest form of authority in a particular territory, the sovereign state is, in
theory, above any challenge:
○ There is no higher authority within that territory and no external challenge
to it.
○ No states have the right to tell another state what to do.
○ The first sovereign states emerged in Europe in the 15th and 16th
centuries, replacing the feudal societies in which authority had been
shared between the aristocracy
■ Emperors, kings, princes, dukes and the Roman Catholic Church
(Tilly, 1975).
○ Since that early period, most countries in the world have adopted the
sovereign state model
■ It is the only way to achieve international recognition and some
degree of autonomy.
○ Many former colonies that gained their independence from the 1940s
onwards were not particularly happy about being stuck with colonial-era
borders.
■ Many of the problems of some modern states can be traced to the
historically unnatural nature of how postcolonial state borders
developed.
○ As well, for many of the world's Indigenous peoples, having their own
systems of governance trapped within larger settler state systems can be
intensely frustrating and not all that legitimate.
● Does the concept of sovereignty really describe political reality?
○ In constitutional theory, the state is sovereign, but in practice it faces
challenges from both inside and outside its borders-challenges that limit its
autonomy.
○ In truth, sovereignty has always been something of a myth.
■ There is a crucial distinction between de jure sovereignty (the
legal right to absolute control over a territory) and de facto
sovereignty (the actual ability of a government to wield political
power).
, ○ As David Held (1989, p.216) points out, "Sovereignty has been an
important and useful concept for legal analysis, but it can be a misleading
notion if applied uncritically as a political idea."
■ For example, the concept of sovereignty is problematic when
discussing a so-called "failed state" such as Somalia, which is
unable to perform the basic functions of sovereignty: controlling the
territory, enforcing the laws, collecting taxes, and so on.
■ Some states, which inherited colonial borders, have not developed
based on preexisting national or other groups.
A Typology of the State
● A common way of classifying states is according to how much they intervene in
society and the economy.
○ At one end of the continuum is the so-called night-watchman state
■ The government concentrates on ensuring external and internal
security, plays little role in civil society, and allows business to
operate relatively unhindered.
○ Theoretically, the state's primary duty is to protect the individual's rights to
life, liberty, and property against any threat, external or internal.
○ The idea of the state as night-watchman was central to classical liberal
thought and played a large part in shaping 19th-century politics throughout
the Western settler world, including Canada and the United States.
○ Emphasizing the individual's right to private property, the night-watchman
model continues to be popular with libertarians.
○ Libertarians believe that the state's role should be minimal
○ They also object to the maintenance of a large military force, especially
when it is deployed to fight overseas.
○ Thus, most American libertarians opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, since
it's not the business of governments to intervene in the sovereign affairs of
other countries.
■ The only time military force should be used is in self-defence when
the country is under attack. Nor do libertarians approve of welfare
state programs such as universal health care.
○ Libertarians believe that local governments and private enterprise are the
most efficient providers of the services that citizens really want and need.
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