Political Science 1020E Final: POLITICAL SCIENCE SEMESTER 2 NOTES (all lectures/readings for third midterm and final)
11 May 2018
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POLITICAL SCIENCE 1020E LECTURE NOTES
SEMESTER 2
Lecture 1: The State Part 1
Defining the State
• The State
o States havent always existed
o Rival forms of the State: Cities, Traditional Kingdoms, Empires (emphasis on
middle ages)
▪ These are alternative models that could just as easily have won out
against States
• I.e. The Holy Roman Empire
o After about 1500 the State model proved better than others at doing crucial
things
▪ Such as raising taxes effectively, waging war
▪ In the last 200 years especially the State model has spread out and
become nearly universal
o The state may be on its way out
▪ The factors that made it so beneficial could now start to become
obsolete
▪ There was a time before the state and there may well be a time after it
• The State has been understood in four quite different ways:
• Idealist Perspective
o Ethical community underpinned by mutual sympathy
▪ Universal Altruism
o Fosters uncritical reverence of the state
o Fails to distinguish between those institutions that are a part of the States
authority and those that are outside it
o Hegelian Idealism:
▪ He saw Human History as the gradual realization of human
consciousness or ideas
• History was a set of ideas set in motion
• The ideas more important than the actual setting
o Development:
▪ Family: Particular Altruism’
• In the family there is a model of altruism that is not shown for
the rest of humanity
• Youll risk your lives for your family but not others
• Narrow, particular, confined to your own family
▪ Civil Society: Universal Egoism
• Getting involved with individuals in society that arent a part of
your family
• There is a more widespread interaction, but there is not moral
code to these interactions, its people looking for their own
interests
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Weve universalized with civil society but are still narrowly
confined within the family
▪ The State is an advanced ethical idea which brings these two things
together
• With the state there is now a new sense of connectedness
between members. The state represents universality and
generality
o People will now be willing to say in war to sacrifice
them for a comrade
▪ State as end of History: The state is the endpoint at which society is
meant to arrive at; the sate is rational, reasonable, provides rules to
govern us
• It is confining because it says rules to define our lives but is
also liberating because it creates individuals that are both one
and free at the same time and making us much more
autonomous
o A set of rules that send us in the best possible direction
▪ Political scientists of the 19th century were extremely leaning towards
the idea of the state being the end all
• Woodrow Wilson was a State Idealist himself and drew heavily
on Hegelian Themes
• Functionalist Perspective
o Functionalism: You get what you need
▪ Explains the appearance of something in society because of the need
for it at the time
▪ We needed the state as a provider of Order and Stability
▪ What threatens order?
• Neo-Marxists: Class conflict – State Resolves it
o Resolves it by maintaining peace through repression,
mediation, propaganda, indoctrination
o Focuses on the role or purpose of State Institutions
o Central focus being the maintenance of social order, the set of institutions
that uphold order and deliver social stability
o Functionalist definition tends to associate any institution that maintains
order with the state
▪ I.e. The family, mass media, trade unions, church
• Organizational Perspective
o The functionalist perspective issue is solved by the organizational approach
which lays out a specific set of institutions that are considered part of the
state
▪ I.e. Bureaucracy, Military, Police, Courts, etc.
o Defines the state as the set of institutions that are responsible for the
collective organization of society and are paid for at the publics expense
o Why treat these as part of the State?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o Post-Hegelian Political Scientists rejected the concept as absurd, distracting,
unnecessary
▪ They were distrustful of the state
▪ As well, Poli. Scientists were starting to become more scientific
▪ They said the idea of the state was too fuzzy of an idea and didnt take
it seriously
o Clearly distinguishes between the state and civil society (organizations that
are independent from the government)
o In this light, several key features of the state
▪ State is Territorial association: defined by defensible borders and
rules those who are within, whether they are citizens or not
▪ State has People: A settled community defined by territorial
boundaries
▪ State is Sovereign: Exercises absolute and unrestricted authority
within territory
▪ State institutions are recognizably Public: are responsible for
enforcing collective decisions
• As opposed to private
• At one point Kings and Queens collected money from their
citizens and used it as their own money at their will
• The development of the state created treasuries that were
accountable to the public
• A crucial part of the state is that public roles are at play now
which are accountable
o Brings together the different sects of the government
▪ State is an instrument of Domination: Has the power to enforce its
decisions and punish those who transgress
• Monopoly of Coercion within a given territory
• There are no other contestable factors which has the power to
coerce the members of the State
▪ The state is an exercise in Legitimation: decisions are usually seen as
binding
• Makes domination easier to swallow
• International Perspective
o View that the state is primarily an actor on the world stage
o One state in the basic unit of international politics
o In this light the state adds emphasis to four features
▪ Defined territory
▪ Permanent population
• These two are a part of organizational as well, but there are
two more that international adds
▪ Effective government
• States usually have governments that at any moment in time
formulate the laws and carry out the functions of the state at
any point in time
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Defining the state: the state, states haven(cid:495)t always existed middle ages, rival forms of the state: cities, traditional kingdoms, empires (emphasis on, these are alternative models that could just as easily have won out against states. The holy roman empire: after about 1500 the state model proved better than others at doing crucial things, such as raising taxes effectively, waging war. The family, mass media, trade unions, church: organizational perspective, the functionalist perspective issue is solved by the organizational approach which lays out a specific set of institutions that are considered part of the state. Welfare may uphold patriarchy by creating a system of public dependence where women are more and more controlled by the extended state. Just provide essential public goods, roads, police, defense: the public state should only do what it needs to, ideal of classical liberals, aim is to ensure individuals enjoy the most freedom out. I. e. helping to rectify imbalances in a market economy: e. g.
