Defining the State and the Question of Power: Authority and Legitimacy
Question of power is very much a question of the state
and its unique power/role.
State = contested entity
Has wide effects, can mobilise populations and defence, can regulate monitor and police those within its borders, intervene in economy, regulate flow of info in public sphere, ubiqutous and pervasive influence in modern societies.
What is political power?
“power is arguably the single most organising concept in social and political theory” (Terence Ball)
-Power & political concepts: freedom (from something or
to do something), equality, justice, democracy. -Defining power: 1. Power-to (positive connotation); capacity & ability to do something- usual sense of power. 2. Power-over (negative connotation); domination (over a group or individual), social relationship where one party is in control. Explores dynamics of power that seem to last and manifest in our institutions.
The political dimensions of Power
3 Dimensions: 1. Power as decision-making Politicians, power to make & implement decisions. Focused on who actually gets what they want in a situation. Problem: Focuses only on context of power and its outcomes, ignores informal and unofficial context of power and the way which power might be more pervasive.
2. Power as agenda setting
‘Non-decision’, power to determine what is discussed or known before decision making is arrived at. Less divisible form of power, decision making and outcomes are not the only way we measure things; we have to think and identify ways to understand to agenda setting itself creates conditions of power in our societies. Problem: take what we want as stable and define power by our ability to get what we want.
3. Power as preference manipulation
Power influences shapes and determines belief and desires of people in general. Subordinate groups might have internalised how they should behave before we get to any overtly political form (decision-making, etc.). Obscure way of describing how some benefit from certain ideas in our society, while others don’t. Problem: Assumes there are objective interests. Relies on capacity of social scientists to know what people interests are, places them in a strong position of power, places there theories under onus of knowing what is good for everyone (being neutral). 4. Power as Constitutive? Rejects notion of real interests, power is not repressive it is productive, power is ubiquitous, power is interactive. Summary: “Extremely crudely, one might say that the liberal takes people as they are and applies want-regarding principles to them, relating their interests to what they actually want or prefer, to their policy preferences as manifested by their political participation. The reformist, seeing and deploring that not everyone’s wants are given equal weight by the political system, also relates their interests to what they want or prefer, but allows that this may be revealed in more indirect and subpolitical ways - in the form of deflected, submerged or concealed wants and preferences. The radical, however, maintains that people’s wants may themselves be a product of a system which works against their interests, and, in such cases, relates the latter to what they would want and prefer, were they able to make the choice.” (Stephen Lukes Power a Radical View) The Political Dimensions of VS Foucault: “We must cease once and for all to describe the effects of power in negative terms: it ‘excludes’, it ‘represses’, it ‘censors’, it ‘masks’, it ‘conceals’. In fact, power produces; it produces reality; it produces domains of objects and rituals of truth. The individual and the knowledge that may be gained of him belong to this production.” Power and Authority Normative dimension to concert of power: power and authority are in a relation. Authority is concerned with rightness of action, about obeying in a voluntary way, ‘right’ to rule. Seem to assume each other but also negate each other. Eg. Power implies constraint, force, subordination, dependence. Authority implies consent, morality, will, autonomy.
Do those who have power create authority, or the other
way round?
The State I: Institutions
The State includes: -Government -Civil Service -Police & Military -Hospitals, Schools, Universities
The state is interchanged with
-Gov (temporary, partisan, whereas states are impersonal & politically neutral.) -Nations (States tend to create nations, nations are social groups) -Civil Society (non state aspect of the world which has different sets of relationships to state)
The State II: Definition & Essence
A Basic Definition: “…a state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.” (Max Weber) States get to use force, force is what defines states, they are coercive and potentially violent, use this to get what they want.
“State-power is in the last analysis coercive power.”
(Raymond Geuss) Essence of the state is to coerce.
“political power is always coercive power backed up by
the government’s use of sanctions, for government alone has the authority to use force in upholding its laws.” (John Rawls)
^^ Broad state of agreement that states are
defined by free and coercion.
The State III: Ontology
Etymology: Status (Latin) meaning stature or standing Force vs Will Legitimacy: lex (Latin) meaning law or lawful Modern Condition: Disagreement Sovereignty
“as when there is controversy in an account, the parties
must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence they will both stand, or their controversie must either come to blowes, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature.” (Thomas Hobbes)
The Nature of the State
1. Contractual View State is a voluntary association of humans, Creates normative argues of what state should look like. States are there to enforce agreements and fair conditions. 2. State as Arbiter/Night-watchmen Metaphor- idea of a very minimal state; highlights its neutrality, its goals is to intervene and minimise conflict so neutral body that arises to end conflict and so nouns rights are violated. 3. State as Organism Collectivity of many parts with many roles, it has direction, intentions and a leader; many people with many roles. 4. State as Oppressor State is a partial institution defined by its use of force to pursue interests of some but not others.