Ch. 2 The Modern State

Nation

A group of people who often perceive themselves as sharing a sense of belonging, and who often have a common language, culture, and set of traditions.

Bureaucracy

A large set of appointed officials whose function is to implement the laws of the state as directed by the executive. Necessary to carry out administrative tasks: such as government collected revenue to use it to maintain the military, pave roads, or build schools. Example, the U.S. Executive Brand.

Ideal type

A model of what the purest version of something might be. What Max Weber would have considered our book's definition of a modern state.

Strong state

A state that is generally capable of providing political goods to its citizens. Earliest states based on elite coalitions created to limit violence. Eventually bureaucracy is created as impersonal organizations and institutions separate from individual leaders. Greater specialization then possible: distinct elites with military, political, economic, and religious power emerged.. Rule of law among elites. Tend to be the wealthier and consumer larger shares of economic resources; they simple are economically bigger than weak states. They are also less corrupt than weaker states, indicating the presence of stronger bureaucracies, and tend to be more legitimate.

Failed state

A state that is so weak that it loses effective sovereignty over part or all of its territory. Examples, Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and Afghanistan.

Weak state

A state that only partially provides political goods to its citizens.

Territory

An area with clearly defined borders to which a state lays claim. One of four characteristics of a modern state. No unclaimed lands currently exist. A claim to land can change through independence, secession, and acquisition.

State

An ongoing administrative apparatus that develops and administers laws and generates and implements public policies in a specific territory.

Bureaucracy and its connection to legitimacy and sovereignty:

Bureaucracy enhances legitimacy and sovereignty. For example, you are more likely to doubt your governments legitimacy if you consider the government to be failing in bureaucracy, such as resenting the government if you're mad about a pothole on the road that you have noticed the government has yet to fill.

Variations in colonial rule on the strength of states:

Colonial rule and independence does not include elite coalition and compromise. Personal rule and clientelism result. British rule: direct rule produced stronger states than indirect rule, while Latin America was later colonized and had united elites to produce stronger states.

Max Weber

Germ sociologist who had a lot of opinions on the characteristics of the modern state. He compared a state's sovereignty to a "monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force." He also believed that rational-legal legitimacy distinguished modern rule from its predecessors, but he recognized that in practice most legitimate authority is a combination of the three types. (For example, modern democratically elected leaders may achieve office on the basis or rational-legal processes, but also by traditional or personal charisma.) He saw bureaucracy as the central part of modern, rational-legal legitimacy since in theory political actors are restricted to certain tasks by a set of laws (rule of law).

The three ways a territorial claim can be changed:

Independence, secession, and acquisition.

Legitimacy and its connection to sovereignty:

Legitimacy enhances a state's sovereignty at a much lower cost than violence or coercive power (coercive meaning use threats). If most citizens obey the government because they believe it has a right to tule, then little force will be necessary to maintain order. An illegitimate state often uses violence to maintain control.

The historical origin of the modern state:

Modern states appeared and developed in Europe. Spread all over the world through conquest, colonialism, and independence. Today modern states virtually cover every territory on the globe.

Strong, weak, and failed states:

No state perfectly matches a strong, weak, or failed state. Some states, however, are much more closer to a specific type than the others. It is also possible for a state's strength to exist on a continuum, with no state being perfectly strong in all conceivable categories, and changes in state strength can go in both directions.

Resource curse

Occurs when a state relies on a key resource for almost all of its revenue, allowing it to ignore its citizens and resulting in a weak state. This causes rebels to try and take control of the resources, which could lead to a civil war.

Feudal states

Premodern states in Europe in which power in a territory was divided among multiple and overlapping lords claiming sovereigty.

Sovereignty

Quality of a state in which it is legally recognized by the family of states as the sole legitimate governing authority within its territory and as the legal equal of other states. (must be without outside interference).

Absolutism

Rule by a single monarch who claims complete, exclusive power and sovereignty over a territory and its people. By the 15 century, feudalism was giving way to this type of rule.

External sovereignty

Sovereignty relative to outside powers that is legally recognized in international law.

Quasi-states

States that have legal sovereignty and international recognition but lack almost all the domestic attributes of a functioning state. States that can be in between categories of strength. They usually some sort of resource curse. It is theorized that many postcolonial states, especially in Africa, are quasi-states.

The four characteristics of the modern state:

Territory, external and internal sovereignty, legitimacy, and bureaucracy.

Clientelism

The exchange of resources for political support. Often in practice in corrupt weaker states.

Rule of law

The idea that everyone (including citizens and government officials) are below the rule of law, and therefore must legally obey. For example, our President can be impeached because he can persecuted by the law. The Chinese communist leaders are considered to be "above" the law, and therefor not subjects to the law.

Legitimacy

The recognized right to rule. Enhances a state's sovereignty. Has at least two sides: the claims that states and others make about why they have a right to rule, and the empirical fact whether their populations accept or at least tolerate this claimed right. There are three main types: traditional, charismatic, and rational-legal. Modern states usual exhibit all three types.

Rational-legal legitimacy

The right of leaders to rule based on their selection according to an accepted set of laws, standards, or procedures. For example, leaders who come to power via electoral process and rule according to a set of laws, such as a constitution.

Traditional legitimacy

The right to rule based on a society's long-standing patterns and practices. For example, European "divine right of king" and the blessing of ancestors over the king in many precolonial African societies.

Charismatic legitimacy

The right to rule based on personal virtue, heroism, sanctity, or other extraordinary characteristics. For example, wildly popular leaders of revolutions, such as Mao Zedong, because the people believe they are exceptional enough to lead.

Internal sovereignty

The sole authority within a territory capable of making and enforcing laws and policies.