POL1101 Lecture 4: POL1101 Class #4 (+wrap up of class 3) & Class #5
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22 Jul 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Friday, October 2, 2015
office hours alex thurs 1-5
Politics Class#3 Continue : THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE STATE
Stages of State Development
+ The State has changed over time , even if Weber’s definition still stands
-Territorial, militarily
•Becoming of territorial units
•Different military use/control
-National
•Nation States introduced
•People come together as part of a political unit
•Useful for national elites to have identity
-Liberal
•States become liberal 19th century: organized around constitutional principals (i.e.
freedom of speech, freedom of the press) -still ongoing-
•Institutional Rules
-Democratic
•Still ongoing as well
•Rule of the people - popular will
-Welfare
•20th century: social welfare
•unemployment benefit, national pension, health care, etc.
-Towards the “eco-state”?
•Green state
•Is the state trying to pursue economical sustainability?
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Friday, October 2, 2015
Changing class conflict and interests? (Marx & Engels)
- Emergence of working class brings democratic ideas (19th/20th century)
-Economic insecurity —> make people feel better with old age pensions, insurance,
etc.
Or popular protests and elite responses? (Tilly)
-violence and legitimacy to get what was wanted
-Elites are forced to adapt (though they resist) bc of popular protests
The global expansion of the state
-State says who rules now and enters around choices, VS pope appointing a leader
-4 processes (*pic*)
•European origins
•Incorporation of previous empires
•Settler colonialism
•Imperialism and decolonization
Class #4: perspectives of the state (what does it do?)
Pluralism
- Dispersed power, relative state autonomy
-Reaction to elitism and marxism
-Origins in political liberalism: value of freedom, constraining power of state, etc.
•Reflects dominant assumptions about how liberal democratic states operate
•Participation at group level VS individual level (liberal focuses on individual
freedom)
-About pluralist interest groups, pressure groups, etc. and their interaction with the
state
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