POL 104 - CHAPTER FIVE STATES AND NATIONS

1. POL 104 - CHAPTER FIVESTATES AND NATIONS

2. THE STATE • the early human social organization was based on small living group of family or kin. • the first state in human civilization emerged when many tribes came under some pattern of organization. 1) Anthropological definition of the State This definition suggests that the basic characteristics of the states include: a - distinctive leadership roles b – rules for social interaction c – a set of organizational arrangements to identify and perform collective needs

3. 2) A Legal Definition of State • The state is a; • “territorially bound sovereign entity”. • Sovereignty means that each state has complete authority and is the ultimate source of law within its own boundaries. • Sovereignty means legal equality. Before the law the USA is equal to Afghanistan. • Nauru (pop: 8000) is equal to Germany (pop: 80 million) • The concept of sovereignty is associated with the doctrine of territorial integrity (a state has the right to resist and reject any aggression, invasion or intervention within its territorial boundaries).

4. However there are several examples of a state’s territorial integrity being violated. First; territorial integrity is a fuzzy (weak) concept when there is dispute over boundaries. Second;in some cases there is no agreement about the legitimate rulers inside the country (Iraq). Third;the international community has become less sensitive to protection of sovereignty when there is strong evidence that the government is committing serious human rights violation against its own citizens. (recent example has been Kosovo where NATO intervened)

5. 3) A Structural - Functional Definition of State - The state is defined as the organized institutional machinery for making and carrying out political decisions and for enforcing the laws and rules of the government. For Max Weber, the state performs a distinct function that distinguishes it from all other organizations. The state is characterized with its monopoly on the legitimate use of force and coercion in the society. - The state, according to structural-functional approach: i) aims to maintain order and to compete with other actual or potential states. ii) the state is an autonomous actor, composed of public officials making decisions. iii) the state has goals , broadly known as national interests.

6. * What functions must be performed by the state in order to maintain its existence? * What structures perform these functions within a given state? Gabriel Almond identifies eight compulsory functions performed by every state: 1) Political Socialization : the process through which individual obtains their orientations toward the political world. 2) Political Recruitment : the process by which people are employed into roles as political activities. 3) Political Communication : the mechanism by which political information is transmitted. 4) Interest Articulation : refers to the needs of groups that the state is expected to satisfy/meet. 5) Interest aggregation: is the transformation of political needs of groups into harmonized alternatives. 6) Policy-making; The process by which the state establishes laws, policy decisions and value allocations. 7) Policy implementations; the actual application by the state of such laws and policy decisions. 8) Policy adjudication; the interpretation and resolution of disagreements

7. 4) The Domain of State Action It is possible to characterize the state by defining its appropriate area of action. - A fundamental question about the state is the limit of state’s role in society. There are several perspectives about the role of state in society. -In the conservative view of the state one important domain (area) of state action is military power or security issues. The state protects and promotes countries interests abroad. Internally the state maintains social order and protects private property rights, and traditional values. - In the classical liberal perspective the state’s role would be very limited. The state is expected to protect country’s sovereignty against external aggression and influence. But classical liberal perspective gives no important role to the state in economic activity.

8. - In the extreme form of this liberal view, in a perspective termed libertarianism, the state action is reduced to almost nothing. • - Democratic socialists believe that the state must constrain many powerful and self-interested groups whose behavior will harm the collective good of society. (greater equality) • - The Marxist view argues that the state will be eliminated (will wither away) but some organizational structures would remain to administer policy. • In Anarchist perspective, there is no role for the state. This does not mean a situation of chaos and disorder. • In some societies the state is not independent from religious order. In fundamentalist Islamic regimes, Shari`a law, the law of Islam, establishes a religious state that defines all aspects of social life.

9. The NATION It has a psychological and emotional basis rather than a legal or functional basis. A Nation is a deeply shared fundamental identification among a group of people. This identification may be based on shared descent, shared culture, shared geographic space, shared religion, shared language, shared economic order. (objective or subjective)  Modern states are multi-national states  nation state (a state controlled by a single nation)      -one nation, two states (Germany during the cold war)     -one state, more than one nation (Almost all states) ethnonationalism : a powerful attitude of identity that one favors his own ethnic group while excluding others from a different ethnicity.

10. THE POLITICAL SYSTEM Analytic concept to describe the structures and dynamics of organized politics at all levels. - the “political system” approach was developed by David Easton.  The concept “system” refers to a group of parts (components) that exist in a characteristic relationship to each other and that interact on the basis of regular patterns. - There is interdependence between the parts of the system. - For example an automobile can be viewed as a system, as a set of components interacting in a regular way. If a particular part, say fuel injection pump is dirty, the performance of the automobile will be affected negatively. The automobile cannot work if you remove the fuel injection pump.

11. In a human system, components are those people who perform particular roles. In a mechanical system it is very easy to describe and understand the interaction between components of the system. • Political System ; its distinctive activity in the authoritative allocation of values for a society. (End of the lecture) 1. Values are those things that have importance to people. There are both negative values and positive values. positive values can be classified as   • abstract values (liberty, freedom, justice) • specific values (material goods such as house, or road system.) (services such as quality health care or protection from crime) (conditions such as security from national enemies, clean air.) (Symbolic goods such as status.)

12. - In addition to positive values, there are negative values such as; coercion and imprisonment polluted water Values are scarce resources, for this reason there are disagreements, competition, and even violent conflict towards obtaining values or distributing them. 2)Allocation refers to a process of making choices in which decisions and actions are taken to distribute (grant) value to some and deny values to others.

13. 3) Authoritative • When the decisions are accepted as binding by people, value allocation is authoritative. • People in a Country accept the authority of the political system for several reasons   • When people voluntarily accept the authority of the state to make binding decisions, the political system gains legitimacy. - There are several reasons which form a basis for legitimacy of political system. These are reasons explaining why people accept the authority of state.

14. * Law: The individual accepts and obeys rationally established laws. * Tradition: There is a long-standing habits toward accepting the authority of state. * Charisma; A dynamic leader persuades the individual to have the idea of obedience because of his or her extra-ordinary qualities. * Social Contract: between the individual- and state (the state of nature?) * Socialization: Obedience is taught. The individual learns to obey. * Individual Utility: The individual likes the performance of the state

15. 4) For Society : • The domain of the political system tends to change from country to country. Since every political system defines its boundaries of legitimate action differently, some political systems allocate values in every aspect of their citizen’s lives while others intervene minimally.One political system might provide a total health care delivery system to all citizens with no charges while another system might provide only hospitalization for the very poor.

16. Components of Political System Environment, inputs, Conversion, outputs, feedback. E N V I R O N M E N T INPUTS  CONVERSION PROCESS  OUTPUTS (demand+support) (decisions)    Feedback

17. 1) Environment: all activities that are not included within the domain of state’s activity. 2) Inputs (Demands and Supports) Demands are wants and desires for particular value allocations. Demands may come from individuals, groups, or systems either within or outside the society when a person prefers lower taxes, or more expenditure on health care, these preferences become demands from the political system. Supports are actions by individual or groups that indicate either favorable or unfavorable orientations toward political system. Support can be positive (paying taxes) or negative (criticizing or opposing political system) 3) Conversion Process (transformation)- It is a process by which political decision-makers evaluate demands and supports within the context of the relevant environmental forces and then determine what values will be allocated to whom.

18. 4) Outputs: decisions made by authorities and the implementation of such decisions. The impacts of decision are called outcomes. 5) Feedback: The final component in the system approach. It is the dynamic process by which information about the changing nature of political system and its environment are monitored by the system. There are many approaches which are interested in studying how the political system makes decisions and allocates resources)

19. * State-centered approach: The major decision makers act independently from the dynamics of society. They define a national interest and then formulate and implement policies to achieve this national interest without being affected by other groups in society. * Class approach: The dominant class exercise power and influence and the decision-makers make decisions to protect the interest of the dominant class. * Elite approach: there is a small ruling elite with political control over decision-making * Group approach: (several competing groups) * Rational-choice: Decision-makers calculate the expected utility for each alternative decision and then select the action with the most favorable benefit.