State and Government Flashcards
(24 cards)
What is Heywood’s (2013) definition of a state?
a political association establishing sovereign jurisdiction with defined territorial borders and exercising authority through a set of permanent public institutions
what is a state sovereign?
exercises absolute and unrestricted power above all other groups
what is state legitimation?
decisions are binding
state domination?
state monopoly on ‘legitimate violence’
territorial state?
geographically defined
government - who rules?
- Mechanism through which order is maintained
- Makes decisions and enforces them
- Formal and institutional processes
What do legislatures do?
Make law
What do executives do?
implement law
what do judicaries do?
interpret law
What does the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of the State (1933) define a state as?
- A defined territory
- A permanent population
- An effective government
- The capacity to enter into relation with other states
When did south sudan become an independent state?
1956
Why did south sudan want independence?
southern states were unhappy with a lack of autonomy
Why do we have states?
Idealist (social existence - Hegel), functionalist (maintenance of social order), organisational (a set of public institutions), operational
when did states emerge?
- 16th/17th century
- treaty of westphalia (1648)
- fuedalism to capitalism (Engels)
- 19th century - industrialisation - move to nation-state
What is the pluralist theory of the state?
- It is a neutral empire approach
- ‘the servant of society and not its master’ (Schwarzmanter, 1994)
What is the marxist theory of the state?
“an instrument for the oppression of the exploited class” (Lenin)
-Autonomy of the state is relative - mediation between classes
What is the new right theory of the state?
- Early and classic liberalism - radical individualism
- Antipathy towards state intervention
- ‘nanny state’
What is the feminist view of the state?
- Patriarchal state
- no universal feminist theory of the state
What role do minimal states play?
- classical liberalism
- protective framework but no other constraints on human behaviour
What role do developmental states play?
- economic growth
- partnership between state and economic interests e.g. Japan
what are the characteristics of social democracies?
-social reconstructing, equality and fairness, positive state, welfare state e.g. Sweden
what are the characteristics of collectivised states?
-entirety of economic life controlled - culture, religion, family e.g. Hitler’s Germany
What evidence is there for politics operating beyond the state?
- Globalisation - global economy, migration
- Non-state actors and international organisations
- ‘Pooled sovereignty’
- Failed states e.g. Liberia
What evidence is there for politics not operating beyond the state?
- Market economies depend on states
- Governance - complex societies and regulation/policy
- Retraction from the international e.g. Brexit
