CPO-2002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Security Dilemma, Extortion, Early Modern Europe
Document Summary
Although contractarian views of the state focuses on the conflicts of interest between individuals, the predatory view focuses on potential conflicts of interests between citizens and state. States are like individuals in the state of nature. They face their own security dilemma in the sense that they have rivals trying to take their place. The concern for security leads states to use their power to extract resources from others, that is, to predate. Sociologist charles tilly claims that states resemble a form of organized crime and that they should be viewed as extortion. As with the contractarian view of the state, the predatory approach sees the state as an organization that trades security for revenue. But, the difference is that the seller of security in the predatory approach happe(cid:374)s to represe(cid:374)t the ke(cid:455) threat to the (cid:271)u(cid:455)er"s (cid:272)o(cid:374)ti(cid:374)ued se(cid:272)urit(cid:455). State formation (cid:862)(cid:449)ar (cid:373)akes the state; states (cid:373)ake the (cid:449)ar. (cid:863)
