The Rise and Transformation of the State

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The Rise and Transformation of the State

• October 6

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Overview

• The state defined and compared to other terms
• Rise of the modern state
• Globalization and the transformation of the state

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Defining the State

• From our textbooks glossary
• State A polity which claims in law (and is able
  to assert in fact) that within a given portion of
  the earth its properly constituted organs are
  exclusively entitled to practise legitimate
  violence in the pursuit of political interests,
  beginning with the maintenance of public order
  and defence of the territory from foreign
  encroachments.

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Defining the State

• The State by Leo Panitch from the Canadian
  Encyclopedia online.

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Defining the State

• Fundamental aspects of the state
• claims a monopoly over coercive force
• territorial claims
• sovereignty claims

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Terminology?

• state
• government
• country
• nation
• nation-state

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Rise of the Modern State

• Treaty of Westphalia (Peace of Westphalia)
• warfare and competitive rivalries
• gradual centralization of power/authority
• rise of capitalism, broadening of markets,
  standardization of currencies
• rising nationalist sentiment (in part fostered
  by, or sponsored by, the emergent states)

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Theories of the State

• Pluralist (non-theory of the state?)
• Weberian (institutionalist theories)
• Marxist (critical theories, class nature of the
  state)

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Globalization and the Transformation of the State
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Globalization

• Globalization takes a variety of forms economic
  (trade, investment), social (migration),
  cultural, etc.
• The impact of globalization upon the state is
  widely debated.

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How new is globalization?

• Modern industry has established the world
  market, for which the discovery of America paved
  the way. This market has given an immense
  development to commerce, to navigation, to
  communication by land.
• Marx and Engels, 1848

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How new is globalization?

• The need of a constantly expanding market for
  its products chases the bourgeoisie over the
  entire surface of the globe. It must nestle
  everywhere, settle everywhere, establish
  connexions everywhere.
• The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of
  the world market given a cosmopolitan character
  to production and consumption in every country.

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How new is globalization?

• The discovery of America, the rounding of the
  Cape, opened up fresh ground for the rising
  bourgeoisie. The East-Indian and Chinese markets,
  the colonisation of America, trade with the
  colonies, the increase in the means of exchange
  and in commodities generally, gave to commerce,
  to navigation, to industry, an impulse never
  before known, and thereby, to the revolutionary
  element in the tottering feudal society, a rapid
  development.
• Marx and Engels, 1848

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Globalization and the State

• globalization sceptics
• (state-centric theorists)
• vs.
• strong globalization thesis
• (retreat theorists)

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Classifying States Sørensen

• Advanced capitalist states
• From modern to post-modern
• Weak post-colonial states
• The lack of stateness
• Modernizing states
• Between post-colonialism and post-modernism