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PART 1. C. PORTRAIT OF THE STATE (4. The transformation of the State (We…
PART 1.
C. PORTRAIT OF THE STATE
1. Introduction
What exactly is a State? Where do State come from? How to characterize them? The state is one of the foundational concepts of political science as it is studied by every branch of political science
Polity analysis
Political sociology
Political institutions
International relations
Political theory
2. What is a State?
Definition of State:
→ There is a State when, on a territory where a population resides, a legally organized power is exercised.
-The theory of the 3 criteria
A territory
The state is the domain of spacial validity of the norms.
→ the notion of territory induces the notion of borders.
A population
It refers to the individuals who are under the jurisdiction of the State and who are legal subjects of it.
A legally organized injunction power
The state has the capacity to impose unilateral acts/norms whose validity doesn't rely on the consent of those who have to obey the norm
-The State as a non monopolistic institution
State was formed thanks to the establishment of a certain number of monopolies, activities that the state only can perform:
Economic monopolies
: everything related to money, for exemple the currency issue.
Judicial monopoly
: only the state has the right to judge and punish.
Fiscal monopoly
: allows to finance all other monopolistic activities of the State
Monopoly of collective representation
: only the state can make decision that engage the community as a whole.
Legal monopoly
: the production of the laws and rules to which everyone must submit.
Monopoly of legitimate physical violence
: to exercise power on the long run, the state must have the legitimacy to do so and must be able to compel (by force) someone who is not ready to obey.
For Weber it’s the most important characteristic whatever the form of the state: → It is the most essential State monopoly and the only one that has not been called into question.
All power rests on the mixture of legitimacy and use of constraint.
-Another vision, Defining the State through what it does: the activities of the State.
Typology of the activities of the State (Philippe Braud):
The dispensive activity of the State
The responsive activity of the State
The extractive activity of the State
3. Why the State ? The process of State construction and development
The state is a form of exercise of power among others. Nevertheless, there is diversity in how state have emerged in different parts of world.
-
Socio-genesis
The factors of State development.
Before the notion of state emerged, there were
feudal political systems
characterized by:
Important fragmentation of power
Low stability of the political units
Weak institutionalization of power
There is 3 factors to explain this process and the emergence of to the
modern state:
Economic factors
Religious and cultural factors
Political and military factors
-Institutionalization and bureaucratization:
The processes of the State development
.
Its institutionalization
Its bureaucratization
-The emergence of the
Nation-State.
Another dimension of the genesis of the State is the emergence of the Nation-State, at its peak in the 19th century. → A form of political and social system in which the institutional system coincides with the nation, which is a community of adherence to this system. A nation is a conjunction of: a set of institutions + a sense of belonging to a common group (cultural homogenization) + a territorial reality.
--> It’s a never-ending construction.
4. The transformation of the State
We refer to Patrick Hassenteufel's table:
3rd phase: the Welfare-State (end of the 19th c.).
4th phase: the productive State (mid. 20th c.).
2nd phase: the Nation-State (during the 19th c.).
5th phase: the regulatory State. (since economic crisis of the 1970s.)
1st phase: the kingly State (until the 18th c.).
A contemporary decline of the State ?
This can be staged in 2 processes:
1st process: deterritorialization of power.
2nd process: decentralization of power.