Nation States, people and patterns of interaction part 1
Max Weber’s Definition of the State
Classic Definition: The seminole definition of the state is attributed to Max Weber. It is considered a cornerstone of political science because it encompasses multiple critical aspects of what constitutes a state.
The Monopoly of Force: Weber defines the state as a "human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory."
Key Components of the Definition:
Human Community: The state consists of people.
Boundaries and Territory: It operates within a defined geographical space.
Power Relations: It involves structured interactions of power.
Legitimacy: The use of force is not merely physical; it must be viewed as legitimate.
Freedom, Security, and the Role of the State
The Balance of Governance: A primary consideration in political arrangements is the balance between freedom and security. While not always a zero-sum trade-off, political regimes often make choices that prioritize one over the other.
Impact of Trade-offs: Emphasizing security over freedom has significant implications for the polity, people, and the nature of governance.
Guarantor of Rights: The state acts as the guarantor of freedoms and security through laws.
State Abrogation: Insecurity often arises when states abrogate their role or fail to serve as guarantors, particularly in environments where the rule of law has been diminished.
The Historical Context of the Nation-State
Modernity of the Nation-State: While the state as a concept is older, the "nation-state" is a relatively recent default form of political organization.
The nation-state became the primary way to organize politically after World War I, following the demise of major empires.
It solidified as the global standard after World War II and the subsequent period of decolonization.
Sovereignty and the Power Container: The nation-state is viewed as a "power container" where sovereignty rests with the people or the nation. This idea follows the principle: "to each nation, its own state."
Cross-Border Challenges: Modern nation-states face challenges that transcend their borders, such as climate change, international health issues, and global pandemics (e.g., COVID-19).
The Peace of Westphalia (1648)
The State System: The Peace of Westphalia in is credited with the birth of the international state system.
Definition of the Westphalian State: An abstract, sovereign governing center that overrides local governments within a territory. It represents a centralized power.
Cuius Regio, Eius Religio: The principle was "to each prince his own religion." This meant sovereigns were no longer indebted to or required to follow the Roman Catholic Church in matters of political rule.
Mutual Recognition: Sovereignty in the Westphalian sense is based on mutual recognition between monarchs or princes as sovereigns in their own territories.
Sovereignty and Enlightened Absolutism
Locus of Power: Historically, the beginning of the modern state saw power transition from being vested in an individual (the monarch) to being vested in the state itself, the commonwealth, or the constitution and laws.
Enlightened Absolutism: Influential in the century, this movement posited that reason should govern public affairs.
Impactful Documents and Events:
The French Revolution.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.
The Polish-Lithuanian Constitution.
The US Declaration of Independence.
Orientalism and the Public-Private Dichotomy
Edward Said’s "Orientalism": Said critique’s the false dichotomy between the public secular sphere and the private religious sphere.
The Public Secular Sphere: Characterized in Western thought as the realm of reason, rationality, and agreed standards of evidence.
The Private Religious Sphere: Often characterized as irrational or opinionated.
Geopolitical False Dichotomy: Said notes that scholarship and popular media (fiction and film) often paint a false binary between a "rational, peace-loving West" and an "irrational, violent East."
Mythology of Westphalian Rationality: While the mythology suggests that the Peace of Westphalia ended religious wars and replaced them with rationality, the period following actually saw massive conflicts and loss of life, challenging the narrative of "rational" state containers.
State Failure and Paul Virilio
The Concept of Inherent Failure: Theorist and philosopher Paul Virilio posits that with the invention of any technology comes the invention of its specific failure.
Verbatim Quote: "When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck. When you invent the plane, you also invent the plane crash. And when you invent electricity, you invent electrocution."
Negativity of Progress: Every technological or technical progress (including the state) carries its own "negativity" invented at the same time as the progress itself.
Positive Political Goods and State Legitimacy
Basis of Legitimacy: A state’s legitimacy is fundamentally based on its ability to deliver "positive political goods" to its people.
Robert Rotberg’s Criteria for Avoiding State Failure:
States fail when they can no longer deliver goods such as security, education, health services, and economic opportunities.
Infrastructure: Providing legal frameworks of order and fundamental infrastructure.
Reach: Extending resources and services beyond the capital city to the entire domain (citing Page of Rotberg's work).
Coercion: Coercion is noted as being extremely costly in human, material, and resource terms.
Inclusion: Enfranchisement and the capacity to meet the needs of the many rather than a select few are critical for a vibrant state.
Comparative Method: These criteria apply not just to "fragile" states but can be used to analyze G8 and G20 states to see where delivery of goods may be failing.
Global Health and State Responsibility
Sophie Harman’s "The Danger of Stories in Global Health": Discusses the relationship between security, health, and the state.
Lessons from COVID-19:
States must listen to people on the front lines and those most impacted by outbreaks.
Everyday knowledge is vital for policy and agenda setting.
The role of "stories" can be used to spread helpful information or harmful misinformation.
Defining Nation, Ethnicity, and Nationalism
Nation: A group of people sharing a history, language, customs, feeling of heritage, and a claim to a homeland. It is based on shared perceptions and ideals.
Ethnicity:
Definition: A belief in a common biological ancestry in the distant past.
Social Construction: Ethnicity is socially constructed; biological distinctness cannot be fully traced due to centuries of migration, invasion, and intergroup contact.
Max Weber on Ethnicity: "Human groups that entertain subjective belief in their common descent… it does not matter whether an objective blood relationship exists."
Markers: Language, cuisine, clothing, art, and historical memories.
Distinction between Nation and Ethnicity:
Nation: Focuses on territory and shared principles; may not necessarily claim biological distinctness.
Ethnicity: Focuses on the myth or belief of collective ancestry; can exist without a clearly defined territory.
Nationalism: The principle that the boundaries of the state should be congruent with the boundaries of the nation.
Theoretical Viewpoints on Identity
Primordialist Viewpoint: Biological distinctions can be traced and are the foundation of social groups; ethnic categories exist prior to social experience.
Instrumentalist Viewpoint: Ethnicity is organized and utilized to a particular end, building on pre-existing ties (kinship, religion) to establish communities or states.
Constructivist Viewpoint: Identities are the result of social interaction and are continuously changing. The idea that ethnic homogeneity is necessary for state-building is viewed as a modern invention.
Scholarship and Conflict in the 1990s
Post-Communist Era: The demise of communist regimes in the prompted significant scholarship on nations and nationalism.
Key Case Studies: The conflicts in the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Identity Politics: In nascent democracies, leaders often appealed to specific identities (ethnic or national) to garner support during initial free elections.
Key Literature:
Ernst Gellner’s Nations and Nationalism (Constructivist perspective).
Hutchinson and Smith’s anthology on nationalism.