State and Nation-state

1. State and Nation-state

2. The State • Framework within which domestic political processes operate and basic unit or actor in international politics • Therefore reasonable place to begin discussion.

3. What is The State? • Is it natural or artificial? • How did it originate?

4. Could human beings get along without it? • Did they in fact ever do without it?

5. Is it divinely ordained, or conceived in sin? • Is it a force for good or for evil? • Does it promote progress or restrain it?

6. How much power should it have and in what spheres? • Where should source of political authority be located? In the hands of one man? A few? The many? • Is its essential character in the force it wields, or in such ethical attributes as justice and law? • Questions asked by political philosophers at least as far back as Athens

7. Aims of lecture • Identify the essential elements of state • Trace briefly historical and philosophical origins • Touch briefly on concept of "nation" to distinguish it from "state" and show how in modern times, it has often, though not always been combined with state in "nation-state"

8. Defining characteristics of State • People

9. Territory

10. Government

11. Sovereignty or independence

12. People • Not necessarily homogeneous : different nationalities and languages possible in same state

13. Homogeneity may be factor in survival of a state • Homogeneous people more likely to agree on fundamentals of system--better able to communicate, less suspicious of each other, better able to get along

14. States with diverse races, nationalities, religious groups, languages, and customs--greater division and stress in times of difficulty

15. Disunity possible among homogeneous people, while heterogeneous people may display surprising degree of unity, particularly when confronted by external danger (e.g. Canada, US, Switzerland)

16. Territory • Although essential characteristic, amount doesn't seem to be important (USSR: 1/6 Earth's surface to Luxembourg)

17. Under international law, all independent states are equal in rights and status regardless of inequalities of area and population.

18. Government • Although a few writers have argued that state and government are synonymous, weight of authority supports proposition that government is simply an important instrument or contrivance of the state

19. Government and state not identical • State includes entire community of persons while government includes only the rulers, who are always only a small proportion of the state.

20. State survives regime change • When particular government overthrown, obliterated, or otherwise eased out of power, state not necessarily destroyed--can be inherited by a new government • Rights and obligations of states under international law not cancelled or altered by revolutionary changes in their governments.

21. Sovereignty • Supreme and final legal authority, above and beyond which no further legal power exists. • 2 aspects: internal supremacy and external independence

22. State without powers to control and regulate affairs within its borders unthinkable

23. International law: “State" reserved for fully independent, entities--not colonial or other dependencies.

24. British Commonwealth - evolution of colonies into sovereign states. • Question of their sovereignty long a matter for scholarly dispute, particularly with respect to their foreign relations

25. Illustrates difficulty of drawing a hard and fast line around concept of sovereignty. • Queen of England still “Sovereign” in Canada. Portrait on all Canadian coins.

26. No such thing as absolute sovereignty • Even the most powerful kings, dictators, and presidents constrained by events, circumstances, and political forces, and practical limits of public patience under oppressive measures

27. International affairs: Mightiest state must shape policies in accordance with realities, and smaller states find range of possible action seriously circumscribed

28. Sovereignty in fact • Many "sovereign states" - legally independent and equal - actually dependent in military or economic matters on one or more Great Power

29. Sovereignty—indivisible? • Sovereignty indivisible – absolute, final legal authority must rest in one and only one place, yet all federal systems assume sovereignty can be divided between central government and states or provinces. • Wide variations in scope and location of sovereign power in state

30. Limitations on external sovereignty • Treaties restrict or condition conduct of states; states which join confederations and yet remain sovereign

31. Protectorates or case of British colonies in transition (which fall short of complete independence and still described as sovereign states).

32. Legal and philosophical concept • Should not be regarded as literal description of composition and location of political power

33. Important characteristic of state • Symbol and ideal standard on which state bases right to proclaim law, invest it with dignity and prestige, and support it with sanctions in order to secure obedience

34. Sovereignty and international relations • In international relations, concept of sovereignty lends sanctity to the efforts of a state to preserve its independence.

35. Origins of the State

36. Origins of the State • Before adequate historical and anthropological evidence available, various hypotheses entertained--many of which discredited in light of modern knowledge

37. Family, clan, tribe • Appears state originated in family, later developed into the claim and the tribe, with habits of obedience carrying over from father to tribal council of elders

38. Emergence of government • Actual government (in the sense of more explicit rules) dates from rise of pastoral economy and institution of property • Presented problems, calling for stronger controls and leadership--usually leadership of a single chieftain, whose role frequently became hereditary.

39. Territorial state • When population began to outrun supply of food, many previously nomadic peoples settled upon fertile lands which could be cultivated.

40. With rise of agricultural economy, territorial state came into being; territorial attachment supplemented earlier bond of kinship

41. State origins—mix of factors • War and conquest seem played important role in rise of state and government -- importance obviously varying in different places at different times and places • State--end product of many factors - biological, economic, cultural, and military - defies explanation in terms of simple unilinear causation • Research of archaeologists and anthropologists, made possible to draw a hazy sketch

42. Why question of state origin important • So what? What difference does it make how the state come into being? • Accounts of how state came into being commonly used to justify the state's exercise of power and authority.

43. Divine Theory • God ordained and established the state • Rulers of oriental empires regarded as descendants of gods. • Early Hebrews believe God created their governmental order. • Early Christians believed God imposed state as punishment for sins—Adam and Eve fall from grace in the Garden of Eden

44. “By the grace of God” • Struggle for supremacy - Pope and Holy Roman Emperors– Did temporal rulers derive authority directly from God or indirectly through Pope • Reformation strengthened claims of national monarchs. Rule "by grace of God". • Revolutions of 17th and 18th centuries -- people against divine pretensions of royal absolutism

45. Social Compact Theory • Theory of popular sovereignty, which ultimately triumphed -- based on notion that state originally created by men, by means of a social contract to which each individual had consented. • 3 best known versions - Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau

46. Hobbes • Man basically evil, so life without state intolerable (Homo Homeni Lupus) • Man so anxious to achieve safety, peace and order that he voluntarily surrendered all his natural rights to the sovereign • Unless and until sovereign overthrown, the people had no right to revolt against him, even if dissatisfied with his policies.

47. Locke • Saw man as a basically rational and moral being who needed the state to adjudicate conflict. • Entered compact voluntarily and by unanimous consent • Retained all natural rights - state adjudicates and determines extent of rights. • Parliament, not monarch, supreme -- Parliament held powers in trust from the people, who could revolt and change form of government.

48. Rousseau • Man "noble savage" - basically good, but corrupted by government • Agrees with Hobbes that life without state intolerable • Sovereign is community rather than single monarch • Sovereignty resides in 'general will" of community, rather than in the government

49. Rousseau-2 • Rousseau essentially authoritarian (like Hobbes) • General Will omnipotent and infallible -- no constitutional restrictions on what it may command. • All faith in reason -- will always lead men to the morally right answers • Those who do not understand wisdom of the general will can be forced into compliance

50. Force Theory • State originated in conquest and coercion • Early writers often argued state based upon injustice and thus essentially evil • Strong had imposed will on weak, then thrown cloak of legitimacy upon their disregard of rights of others