The State Revision
The State: ‘A distinct set of political institutions whose specific concern is
with the organisation of domination, in the name of the common interest,
within a delimited territory’. Brown, GW, McLean, I, & McMillan, A 2018.
‘The state, for better or worse: mobilises populations in defence of its realm;
regulates, monitors and polices conduct within civil society; intervenes
(whether we like it or not) within the economy; and regulates (and in some
instances controls) the flow of information within the public sphere’. Despite
globalisation, ‘the state has remained a constant (and arguably even a
growing) presence at the heart of contemporary politics’. Hay, Lister and
Marsh, 2006.
What is the state?
According to Heywood (2013), the state is a political association that
established sovereign jurisdiction within defined territorial borders and
exercises authority through permanent institutions. Such institutions are
public and responsible for the organisation of communal life and funded
through taxation.
The origins of the modern state lie in Western Europe. The modern state is
characterised by:
1) Its claim to act as the public power responsible for the governance of
its people and territories
2) Its separation from those it claims to govern
Weber, a German sociologist defined the modern state in terms of its modus
operandi as opposed to its function. This means the state is viewed in terms
of its organisation and deployment of the means of coercion/ physical force:
‘A compulsory political organisation with its continuous operations will be
called a ‘state’ insofar as its administrative staff successfully upholds the
claim to the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force in the
enforcement of its order’. Weber, 2004.
Weber defines the state via its institutions (as is common in Realism). Those
who subscribed to Weber’s ideas (Neo-Weberians, Neo-Statists,
Institutionalists) argue that the differentiation of the start from civil society
enables state managers to develop a range of interests, preferences and
capacities. These state managers have infrastructural power to infiltrate,
control and supervise modern societies. In this sense, Weber and
Institutionalists believe the modern state is a monopoly of authoritative rule-
making within a bounded territory. They question how the state is able to
maintain its authority, how it maintains a balance between coercion/ consent,
how does the state establish legitimacy and sustain it? Neo-Statists often
focus on the means of violence and military dimension of the state.
, However, these theories have been accused of the following:
- Concentrating too much on internal political factors of the state, and
not so much on external factors (globalisation, social movements,
pressure groups)
- Neo-Weberian theory rests upon the distinction between the state and
society, without paying attention to the ever-changing relation
between state/society, public/ private. Especially in the midst of
globalisation.
To establish a concept of the state, both institutional contextualisation and
historical contextualisation must be considered.
Institutional Contextualisation Historical Contextualisation
The state can be viewed in The state as an institution evolves
structural/ institutional terms. State over time. This evolution is shaped
actors care embedded in the by the consequences of historical
structure of the state, and the state governing policies/ strategies. The
provides the institutional landscape current situation any state finds
for negotiation/ discourse. The itself in is reflective of the strategic
decisions of state actors are shaped capacities/ competences of the
by institutional conditions and institutions of the state, and the
preferences, and therefore are constraints/ opportunities that these
viewed to be without free will. Just impose. To understand the state, the
because a politician gains a huge implications of the institutional,
majority in an election, doesn’t structural and strategic historical
mean they can impose their entire legacy should be considered. For
mandate on the population. example, the Blair-Brown
However, this theory is too governments had to grapple with
structuralist, and fails to take into the legacy of Thatcherism. However,
account other factors. the past and its burdens should not
absolve current actors from
responsibility.
References:
Brown, G., Mclean, I. & McMillan, A. (2018) The Concise Oxford Dictionary of
Politics and International Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hay,C., Lister, M. & Marsh, D. (2006) The State: Theories and Issues. New
York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Weber, M. (2004) The Vocation Lectures: ‘Science as a Vocation’; ‘Politics as
a Vocation’. Translated by Livingstone, R. Introduction and notes by Owen, D.
& Strong, T. Indiana: Hackett Publishing Company.
