PS 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Failed State, Civil Society
8 Sep 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
State failure is when you lose both legitimacy and capacity. There are pathways to state failure: escalation of inter-group conflict, elite predation (looting the people), regional or local rebellion, democratic collapse, autocratic collapse. The regime dictates the rules of the game. Being a citizen means we aren"t being ruled so much as we are participating in the government. Human rights make a citizen: civil rights are basic freedoms. Free treatment by the state: political rights give you the right to participation (voting, running for office, etc, social rights are basic economic welfare. Civil society is the real of social life that is between your family and the state. The realm is open, voluntary, self-generating, somewhat self-supporting, autonomous from the state, and bound by a legal order. This does not include parochial (worship-oriented activity), economic, or political society. Basis for legitimate authority claims: contractarian (popular sovereignty). This is how democracy works: consequentialist (we make your life better).
