Unit 2.docx

Unit 2 - Politics and the State Study Notes As the textbook notes, modern states can be classified based on either: (i) how much they intervene in society and the economy, or (ii) according to how subject the leaders are to the will of the people. Regardless of form, all states share the defining ch...

Unit 2 - Politics and the State Study Notes As the textbook notes, modern states can be classified based on either: (i) how much they intervene in society and the economy, or (ii) according to how subject the leaders are to the will of the people. Regardless of form, all states share the defining characteristic of the claim to sovereignty: the supreme and indivisible power to rule over a national territory. Theories of the State Pluralist theory argues that modern society is too complex such that the direct participation in governance by all individuals in a state is not possible. As such, citizens join interest groups to promote their individual interests. These groups form coalitions and compete among each other for their preferred policy outcomes. On this account, politics consists of is the constant play of different interest groups that both advance the interests of their own groups while checking the power of other groups. The pluralist approach is committed to the idea that democratic citizenship is possible in modern societies. In contrast, elite theory argues that a select few control power in the state and use it to their own advantage. This claim can be understood from either a normative or descriptive perspective. For someone like Plato, good governance could only be achieved when an elite group of “philosopher kings” had the exclusive right to rule. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, elite theorists like Pareto and Mosca argued that such rule was inevitable since there was a natural division between elites and the masses. More recent elite theory argues that though such rule may be inevitable, it is not necessarily desirable. While socialists may agree with elite theorists that modern democratic capitalist societies are dominated by a self-interested ruling elite, note that their analysis of where that power is derived is different: The bourgeoisie derive their power from their ownership of capital. Socialists also differ from elite theorists in their believe that rule by elites is inevitable. Socialists believe that a communist revolution will bring about an egalitarian society. Role of the State Since the industrial revolution, the liberal democratic state has existed in three major forms. First is what may be termed the “night-watchman” state. On this account, government is an opponent of human liberty and therefore should not be allowed to intervene in the economy. Such a view of the state witnessed a revival – particularly in the 1980s – among members of the New Right. The effect of the Great Depression on the economies of these states, coupled with the expectations of those who fought to preserve those states, lead to a re-thinking of the role of the state. The welfare state created, in liberal democracies in the post Second World War era was the response. The work of economist J. M. Keynes suggested the state needed to intervene in the economy to balance out the boom-and-bust cycles that were characteristic of capitalist economies. The transformation of the liberal democratic state from night watchman through to welfare to what many today now call “neoliberal” highlights the continued debate about the proper role of the state. The movement of control away from the state, particularly in the case of the economy, has led some to talk about its “hollowing out.” Power has moved upwards towards international organization (such as the World Trade Organization), outwards towards the market and downwards to sub-national levels of government (Jessop 1990). Conclusion As we come to terms with globalization and its world-wide effects, it is important that we recognize the wide array of implications that have resulted. From threats to the state, to structures of power, developments in information technology, to questions about the Third World, different theories of the state have much to say about the direction we are headed in the modern world.