comparative politics slides!

ORIGINS OF THE STATE

Course: POLS 1611 COMPARATIVE POLITICS - Terence K. Teo

SOMALIA AND PIRACY

  • Geography:

    • Overview of Somalia, including key geographic locations such as:

    • Yanbu, Saudi Arabia

    • UAE

    • Oman

    • Jeddah

    • Port Sudan

    • vicinity of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden

    • Major areas of reported piracy between 2000 and 2010.

    • Data depicting the extent of pirate attacks in Somalia from 2005 to 2010.

  • State Functionality:

    • Somalia lacked a functioning central government until 2012.

    • Absence of effective policing capabilities over 2,000 miles of coastline and waterway.

    • No structured national government: no police force, military, or legal framework to combat piracy and lawlessness.

WHAT IS THE STATE?

  • Definitions of the State:

    • Max Weber: A human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.

    • Douglass North: An organization with a comparative advantage in violence, extending over a geographic area whose boundaries are determined by its ability to tax constituents.

    • Charles Tilly: A relatively centralized, differentiated organization among officials who claim control over the primary means of violence in a population inhabiting a contiguous territory.

COMMON FACTORS IN DEFINITIONS

  • All definitions emphasize the state's monopoly on violence and governance within a defined territory.

VIOLENCE AND THE STATE

  • Thomas Hobbes: "Covenants without the sword are but words."

  • Charles Tilly: "Violence is written in the DNA of the state."

NUMBER OF STATES OVER TIME

  • Graph illustrating the total number of states from 1800 to 2000 by geographic area:

    • Asia/Pacific

    • Africa

    • Europe

    • Americas

  • Notable increase in state formation post-World War II.

ON GOVERNMENTS

  • Distinction between State and Government:

    • The state is a political-legal abstraction.

    • The government is a concrete organization with authority to act on behalf of the state, making decisions affecting all individuals within it.

HEAD OF STATE VS. HEAD OF GOVERNMENT

  • Clarifies that in many countries, the head of state and head of government may be the same individual or different individuals.

ON NATIONS

  • Definition of a Nation:

    • A group of individuals sharing a common identity (language, religion, ethnicity, or shared history).

    • Lacks institutional characteristics of states, such as sovereignty and the monopoly of legitimate force.

  • NATION-STATES:

    • A state in which a single nation predominates.

    • Characteristics of a nation-state are closely tied to demographic, legal, social, and geographic boundaries with that nation, leading to potential civil conflict where state and nation don't coincide.

A NATION WITHOUT A STATE

  • Example of nation without a state: Kurds, spanning areas in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran.

THE PRINCIPALITY OF SEALAND

  • An offshore platform (Roughs Tower) claimed as a sovereign state by Major Paddy Roy Bates in 1967.

FAILED STATES

  • Definition of a Failed State:

    • Entity that cannot coerce or control inhabitants in a designated territory.

    • A state is considered failed when its sovereignty collapses or was never established.

  • The concept of state fragility exists on a continuum, with various degrees of failure.

THE FRAGILE STATES INDEX 2025

  • Data representation indicating the stability and fragility of various states.

THE CONTRACTARIAN VIEW OF THE STATE

  • Early political thinkers such as:

    • Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau examined the role of the state through thought experiments regarding a state of nature.

  • State of Nature:

    • Theoretical condition without a governing state, characterized by chaos and insecurity.

  • Quote by Hobbes on the state of nature describing it as a place with no industry, culture, navigation, or societal norms.

THE SECURITY DILEMMA

  • Individuals face a dilemma wherein, despite mutual self-interest, security concerns lead to predatory behaviors.

    • Without a common power, individuals resort to bullying to ensure safety.

GAME THEORY

  • Game theory as a framework to analyze interdependent decision-making where outcomes rely on the actions of multiple players.

  • Core Assumption:

    • Actors are assumed to behave rationally, with preferences that are complete and transitive.

RATIONAL PREFERENCES

  • Actors can rank-order outcomes based on preferences, leading to utility maximization.

    • Utility: Concept representing well-being.

    • Utility Maximization: Self-interested behavior aimed at maximizing individual utility.

GOAL-SEEKING BEHAVIOR

  • Rationality is described as a system based on goal-seeking behavior rather than psychological theory.

STRATEGIC INTERACTIONS

  • Strategy: A plan of action to attain the best outcomes based on the expected actions of others.

  • Understanding outcomes becomes complex due to interdependencies in strategic decision-making.

GUESS TWO THIRDS OF THE AVERAGE

  • An example game illustrating strategic choice dynamics where players try to guess two-thirds of the average of all guesses, leading to iterative reasoning about what others might guess.

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

  • Key tenant: It is less about how preferences are articulated but rather ensuring accurate and convenient representation of preferences.