week 11: states

Examine the relationship between “the state” and human rights, focusing on the following questions…

Human rights are the state: why care? 

• First, states are everywhere. 

• Second, states are powerful, 

  • Many states have billions of dollars worth of military and economic resources. What they do, therefore, has big implications for the lives of the human beings under their control…

  • Consider some of the political events we have examined in this course 

    • Russia-Ukraine war 

    • Syria’s Civil War 

    • US Nuclear bombing of Japan in 1945

• Third, states are relatively new, 

  • For most of human history (~99.8%) humans have not lived in states 

Human Rights and the State 

• States are ubiquitous, powerful and relatiovely modern 

• But what else is “the state”? 

• How might you define “the state”?

Human Rights and the State: what is a State? 

• For our purpose today, perhaps a useful definition of “the state” is…

  • A form of poltical organization in which the lives of people are heavily influenced and coerced by distant authorities who hold a predominance of power within a large and specified geographic territory. 

• To understand what “the state” is, take a moment to think about your own life and what influence it…

• Think about your relationship with your social network- your family 

• but , one might argue, their influence pales in comparison to the influence that the Canadian State has on your life…

• Consider the following: 

  • what ‘s in your food

  • What you learn in school

  • Where you can live 

  • Where you can park 

  • How you spend your money 

  • How fast you drive your car 

• Also consider your relationship with the University of Toronto…

• What happens when you commit U of T’s most egregious 

• Now, what happens when you cheat the Government of Canada by committing tax evasion or tax fraud? 

• Punishment include:

  • Huge financial penalties 

  • Up to 14 years in prison

• From 2017-2022, 140 Canadian taxpayers found guilty of tax evasion and tax fraud spent  total of 119 years in jail. 

• What does this tell us about the nature of the state? 

The case in favour of the state 

• Lets now turn to the question of the overall impact the state has had on our lives…

• What are some possible reasons why the advent of “the state” has been a positive development for human rights? 

• Take a few moments to think about it…

• One view is that without the power of the state, human rights norms and laws are meaningless, mere pieces of paper…

• Imagine our society without a police force and judiciary dedicated to the punishment and deterrence of criminal behaviour 

• Or consider the case of the ICC…

• Or consider the case of the Kosovars in 1990s 

The case against the state 

• But, not everyone agrees that the advent of “the state” was a good thing for humanity…

• Arguments that the state is a destructive entity go back hundreds of years…

• Consider the following…

  • What did the creation of Australian, Canada, the US and New Zealand mean for indigenous populations living in the territory?

  • What impact did the emergence of modern France in the 19th century have on the language people spoke in that territory? 

  • What impact did the emergence of modern Turkeey in the early 20th century have on Armenians 

• Anarchists argue that “the state” is a major cause of repression and suffering.

• As a result, anarchists advocate for its destruction and replacement by small, decentralized, independent villaeges and communes…

• What is the empirical evidence that might support this perspective?

The Case Againsr the state: Revolutions

• Anarchists argue that the evils of “the state” are shown in times of revolution, where a groups seeks to overthrow an existing repressive government only for it be replaced with another repressive government…

• The French Revolution, like many other revolutions, sought to usher in a new er of rights, liberty, equality for all. The outcomes, however, were often deadly. Consider the following statistics: 

• In addition to deth tolls, some scholars not that countries who experience revolution often become more repressive…

• This is said to be seen in: 

• First, revolutions are often led and won by those who are ruthless and willing to kill for their ideals

• Second, victorious revolutionary leaders often deel insecure and thus they seek to build and maintain a powerful state able to secure their hold on power from their domestic and international enemies (real or imagined).

• But, for anarchists, the problem is not just the character of the revolutionary leaders or their insecurity…

• Rather, it is the state and the fact that it is not destroyed and replaced by another form of political organization…

The case against the state: Pre-State Life 

• So far, we have seen how anarchists often make their case against the state by emphasizing how disastrous revolutions can be, regardless of political ideology… But another set of arguments against the state examines what life before the state might have looked like…

  • How would you characterize life during this period 

• Use John Lanchester’s article we read for this week, see if you can identify a few characteristics of pre-state life…

• First, diets were diverse, food was abundant, and the farming that did occur focused on 

• Second, there were not taxes (where taxes=money or resources paid to some distant centralized authority).

• Third, life was less busy…

• Fourth, life was more intimately connected to the anutral environment, less based on a desir to control and dominate it…

The state and Human Rights: An Overall Assessment 

• From what it seems from this weeks readings, the advent of the sta e

• When thinking about some of the characteristics of life before the state, the argument that the state is a positive development for human rights becomes mcu less compelling…

• First, do we have enough accurate information to come to any firm conclusion about pre-state life and how it might compare to life under the state? 

• Second, not all scholars agree with this positive depiction of pre-sate, hunter-gatherer life.

• Some point to evidence that suggest more negative conclusions about the quality of lie before the state, and that psoitibve interpretation of ancestral 

• Third, we often think of humanity as moral in intention and rational in action 

• But, if the argument that life before the state was so great, what the explains the state’s widespread 

• Fourth, to what extent can we blame the state for such things like slavery, exploitation, war, taxation or destruction of local knowledge and ways of living? 

  • Did the state cause these behaviours, as anarchist suggest? 

Alternatives to the State: Indigenous Self-Determination 

• Let’s now turn to the question of what a stateless political society would look like…

• Indigenoys perspectives offer a way to think about this form of poltical organization. 

• In their article for this week, Corntassel & Woons distinguish 

Althernatives to the state: The Kurd’s “stateless Democracy” 

• Understanding the Kurdish movements calls for a “statless democracy” can help us answer this question. Importantly, the Kurds did not always advocate for this stateless solution.

• What does the stateless democracy consist of? 

• First, decnetralized rule…

• Second, policies are made via direct democracy in “citizen assemblies” 

• In your view, how viable is this idea of a “stateless democracy” 

• Can it be achieved? If so, why? If not, why not? 

• Is a “stateless democracy” desirable? Why or why not?