G+S the state and sovereignty knowledge flashcards

The idea of what constitutes a state was defined legally by the Montevideo Convention of 1933. It declared that a state must have …

 (i) a permanent population (ii) a defined territory (iii) a government (iv) sovereignty and the capacity to enter into relations with other states. Added to the points of the conventions is that in order to be a state, it needs to be recognised as one, by a significant number of other states. Therefore whilst Russia recognised South Ossetia as a state, but since no other country does, it isn’t a state. 

Nations are cultural entities, collections of people bound by shared values and traditions, particularly language, history, culture, religion and usually occupying the same geographical area. However …

the nation cannot be defined by these simple objective factors alone. For example, language is often used to define a nation such as in France, however this is not always the case, such as in Switzerland where there are 4 official languages, America and Australia which have English as a first language yet do not consider themselves part of an English nation.

Religion has also been used to define membership of a nation, in Iran for example where 90% of citizens are Shi’a muslims, but countries which contain many different religions often …

 still see themselves as one nation eg. Ethiopia. Similarly, nations do not always have to be made up of one ethnic group or race. Although this has been important in some nations such as Nazi Germany, ethnically diverse nations such as America prove that ethnic unity is not a necessity for national unity. 

 nations need to be defined ‘subjectively’ by their members, not by external, objective factors. In this sense, a nation is …

a psycho-cultural concept, a group of people who regard themselves as forming a natural political community and share a sense of patriotism regardless of the presence or absence or certain objective factors

the Kurds see themselves as a nation despite never having …

political unity and presently being spread throughout the Middle East. 

A nation-state is where  the boundaries of that nation and state coincide and is the ultimate goal for nationalists. The great strength of the nation-state is that …

it offers both cultural cohesion and political unity. Nationalism legitimises the authority of the government and political sovereignty will reside with the people or the nation itself. Therefore, nationalism represents popular self-government, the idea that government is carried out by the people for the people.

The idea of the Nation has created Nationalist ideologies and its subsequent thinking. Nationalism is a political ideology whose core belief is …

that all nations should have their own states. It therefore envisages a world of nation states, where every nation is sovereign since it ‘owns’ its state.

Civic Nationalism is a form of this most favoured by liberals; based on the idea of the political nation. It tends to be …

 inclusive and open to all with ideas of equality between nations. Membership of the nation is based on citizenship and civic loyalty rather than objective factors such as language, religion and race.

Civic nationalism encourages …

cultural diversity and is voluntaristic in that people can become members of the nation rather than being born into it.

Ethnic nationalism stems from the belief that nations are defined by a …

shared heritage, a common language and faith and a common ancestry. Ethnic ancestry suggests that there is some degree of genetic, biological and racial aspect to the national identity.

The state is a historical institution: it emerged in 15th and 16th century Europe as a system of centralised rule that succeeded in subordination to all other institutions and groups, temporal and spiritual. The …

Peace of Westphalia Treaty 1648 is usually taken to have formalised the modern nation of statehood. By establishing states as sovereign entities, it made states the principal actors on the world stage. International politics was thus thought of as a ‘state system’.

 The state system gradually expanded from Europe into North America, then, during the 19th century, into South America and the East, becoming a truly global system in the 20th century, largely thanks to the process of decolonisation in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific.

In the 21st century, statehood appears to be more popular and sought after than ever before.

 In 2013, the UN recognized 193 states, compared with 50 in 1945. Furthermore …

there are a number of unrecognised states waiting in the wings of the UN, including the Vatican, Taiwan, Kosovo and Northern Cyprus. The list of potential candidates for statehood is also impressive, including states such as Palestine, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Quebec, Kurdistan and Scotland. 

States have a dualistic structure, in that they have two faces, one outwards and the other looking inwards. The outward-looking face of the state deals with the state’s relations with other states and its ability to provide protection against external attack.The Montevideo convention…

 advances a ‘declaratory’ theory of the state, in which states become states by virtue of meeting the minimal criteria for statehood, as opposed to a ‘constitutive theory’ of the state. Even without recognition, the state has the right to defend its integrity and independence, to provide for its conservation and prosperity, and consequently to organise itself as it sees fit (Article 3).

The inward-looking face of the state deals with the state’s relations with the individuals and groups that live within its borders and its ability to maintain domestic order. From this perspective …

 the state is usually viewed as an instrument of domination. The German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) thus defined the state in terms of its monopoly of the means of ‘legitimate violence’.

Joseph Schumpeter (1954) complemented Max Webers definition by pointing out that the state also has a monopoly of the right to tax citizens. In view of the state’s dual structure …

what can be called ‘statehood’ can be seen as the capacity both to protect against external attack and to maintain domestic order, and to do them simultaneously (Brenner 2004).

The first major theorist of sovereignty was the French political philosopher Jean Bodin (1530-96). He defined sovereignty as …

 ‘the absolute and perpetual power of a commonwealth’. In his view, the only guarantee of political and social stability is the existence of a sovereign with final law-making power; in that sense, law reflects the ‘will’ of the sovereign.

The concept of internal sovereignty refers to the location of power or authority within a state, and has been crucial to the development of …

state structures and systems of rule. Early thinkers, as already noted, were inclined to the belief that sovereignty should be vested in the hands of a single person, a monarch.

Absolute monarchs described themselves as …

sovereigns, and could, as did Louis XIV of France in the 17th century

Globalisation and the suggested replacement of “the society of states” global model reshapes the image of state sovereignty. The state as the lead actor in international relations has been challenged …

and changed through economic, cultural and political globalisation, including by international law.

Hyperglobalists would argue that complex interdependence and pressure to conform to neoliberal economics has significantly undermined state autonomy. Pressure to conform to such models ….

- by reducing welfare spending, lowering taxation and allowing unrestricted access to TNCs - has eroded state control over their own economies, particularly since the 1980s-90s, when formerly protectionist states liberalised trade to join the global economy.

Neo realist Kenichi Ohmae argued in “The end of the Nation State” that …

nation-states have lost control over key economic levers such as markets, currency, exchange rates and trade, and are now obsolete, with true power lying with ‘region states’ like Silicon Valley and Hong Kong, whose global integration transcends borders.

Surrender to the global economy is seen by India’s 1991 trade reforms which led to a drop in average import tariffs from …

80% to 30% by the new millennium, while Colombia reduced theirs from 50% to 13%. 

TNC’s often yield more financial power than states, with BP profiting over …

 £25billion a year, Amazon £44 billion and employing over a million workers, it is crucial to economies to cooperate with them

Whilst potentially overstating the decline of the state, the constrained policy options as a result of the IMF, WTO and World Bank suggest …

economic globalisation has transformed state sovereignty.

Sceptics and Transformationalists argue globalisation has reshaped, not diminished state power. While states can’t control global markets …

many have leveraged globalisation to their advantage as states have used them to transform and build their economies.

Around 90% of economic activity still occurs within the state, and isolationists like …

North Korea and Venezuela reject global norms to prioritise sovereignty.

Under Hugo Chavez, Venezuela nationalised TNC’s like BP and ExxonMobil, built an oil-funded welfare state, rejecting …

neoliberalism, illustrating the state's capacity to resist global economic pressure - albeit with consequences, seen by the models collapse due to falling oil prices.

The 2007-9 financial crash was managed through state action, such as …

within the G20, with states and not TNCs/IGOs yielding ultimate power. Whilst global markets constrain autonomy, states remain autonomous and necessary in regulating the global economy

Political globalisation can be said to have eroded state sovereignty through the rise of IGO’s, universal human rights and regional humanitarian intervention. For hyperglobalists …

the growing belief in universal human rights diminishes states’ ability to act exclusively in national interest, particularly with IGO’s like the UN or EU requiring compliance with binding agreements, even when contrary to state laws and views.

The Kyoto Protocol obliged states to alter climate policies to …

meet international targets.

The ICJ ruled in favour of Cameroon over Nigeria in a dispute over the …

Bakassi peninsula, which Nigeria was forced to accept due to its UN membership.

The influence of the UDHR is equally transformative, with it now incorporated into the laws of the over 185 UN member states. Humanitarian intervention …

intervention further weakens sovereignty: NATOs 1999 intervention in Kosovo overriding Serbian autonomy to prevent genocide and the US-led invasion of Iraq bypassing UN approval.

This suggests sovereignty no longer guarantees protection from external interference, with such examples demonstrating the state’s traditional political authority is increasingly …

constrained by external norms and IGOs. This said, many states do remain politically independent from external norms, such as states under Shariah law in the Middle East

Globalisation scpetics suggest that state sovereignty remains, as states retain ultimate authority over the ways they engage with IGOs, thus remaining the primary actors in global politics. States voluntarily …

enter and exit institutions, as seen by the UK’s decision to leave the EU, and Denmark's negotiations to opt out of the euro currency under Maastricht in 1991, illustrating autonomy.

International law is frequently ignored by powerful states. For example …

Israel dismissed the ICJ’s ruling deeming its wall separating Palestinian territory illegal; the UK resisting returning the Chagos archipelago until 2025 despite UN advice to do so and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disregarding international norms.

While the UDHR promotes universal rights, national interest is far more powerful, with most states failing to …

grant citizens all UDHR rights - with nearly all abuses ignored, especially those by powerful countries such as China.

the notion of the state as “a dinosaur waiting to die” is clearly overstated, with states continuing to act …

against international norms despite political globalisation, evidenced by the only 9 humanitarian interventions between 1991 in Iraq and ongoing 2013 CAR interventions, suggesting the state remains largely powerful enough to choose when and how international norms apply

Cultural globalisation has challenged the power and autonomy of the state by undermining and eroding national identities. The global spread of western values, both naturally through globalisation and via commercially-motivated actions by brands, can be seen by …

the dominance of western brands such as Disney, generating over $50bn annually dependent on promoting western music, fashion and language, and the standardisation of western style utilities globally. 

The internet and communications has accelerated this trend, with western media companies such as Netflix, Amazon and Apple dominating globally.

A 1999 French L’Expansion poll shows 60% of respondents agreeing that globalisation represents the greatest threat to the French way of life, underpinning the perceived erosion of cultural identities

Transformationalists would argue that globalisation has empowered states to preserve and promote culture. The world remains a …

society of distinct states, with globalisation allowing for the preservation and celebration of cultures.

Swahili scholars partnered with the Google Language Interface to maintain the integrity of Swahili language.

Globalisation has strengthened many states' control through censorship and the media - China’s firewall being a prime example. 

In Robert Cooper’s ‘The post modern state’, he suggests that cultural globalisation has confined the role of the state, but …

but primarily in the west, with religious identities and language especially remaining distinct in Asia and the Middle East

Whilst cultural globalisation clearly challenges the distinct national identities, its threat is overstated and …

enables cultures to be preserved and shared, rather than erased.