Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Comparative Politics, Totalitarianism
13 views2 pages
16 Feb 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Politics 1020E
The State: What is it Good For?
General
● organizational approach is what most political scientists rely on
● wars in the last 500 years revealed the inadequacies of feudal societal systems, and
replaced them with what we now call states (and its institutions)
State Dualism: Two ‘Faces’ of the State
● the state is distinguished from internal society, for which it provides rules and stability
● the state is distinguished from the international sphere, in which it competes with other
states, in the absence of stability
● from inside, it provides order
● from outside, it competes between states without any overarching rules
Comparative Politics and International Relations
Comparative politics: states as units of analysis:
● compares units
● studies politics under state-provided stability
International relations: states within state system:
● begins with concept of anarchy
● examines state interactions in absence of rules and enforcements
● has explored surprising sources of order (e.g. IR scholars recognizing that states are
more cooperative to serve the interests of other states than before)
Connected in many ways:
● war drove state formation and continues to do so
● globalization has arguably weakened states (i.e. increasing restrictions between states)
● state failure: civil/international wars and even the emergence of both combined
Rise and Declines of the State?
Growing responsibilities in modern era:
● managing complex economies
● has assumed many more responsibilities than ever before
● increasing taxation to provide more public services
● controlling flows across borders (e.g. immigration, trade)
●defining and defending rights
● sustaining social welfare
Global extension: it’s a world of states:
● UN establishing universal relations between states (that are legitimate in the eyes of the
UN)
● decolonization resulted in the splitting of many states