The State, Interstate System vis-

à-vis Global Governance

(From Hobsbawm’s The Future of the
State)
 Discussion Questions
• What is the role of the State in a Globalized
World?
• What are its traditional roles?
• Does it remain significant in the advent of
globality?
The Future of the State-E. J. Hobsbawm
• Sovereign nation-state is today entering a new
phase. After a period of virtually unbroken
advance from the late eighteenth century to
the 1960s, it has entered an era of
uncertainty, perhaps of retreat.
 SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
TERRITORIAL STATE
1. It consists of a (preferably continuous
and unbroken) territory, separated from other
states by clearly defined lines (frontiers or
borders) demarcating the area under the power
of one state government from that under the
power of another.
 SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
TERRITORIAL STATE
2. The territory is sovereign, which is
to say that within it no authority other
than that of the local state is
recognized, except by the unforced
agreement of that state (by a
negotiated treaty, for example).
 SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
TERRITORIAL STATE
‘Extraterritoriality’ is thus a synonym
for the absence of the local state’s
power. The imposition of a superior
authority against the will of the local
state - such as a military conquest - is an
act of force which brings sovereignty to
an end, at least temporarily
 SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
TERRITORIAL STATE
3.Within its territory the state has the monopoly
both of law and of the powers of coercion with
the following exception:
- insofar as these have been willingly renounced
(e.g. European Union which accept for certain
purposes the precedence of European law
over national law)
- (minor exceptions) diplomatic immunity
 SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
TERRITORIAL STATE
4. The national state rules its citizens
or subjects directly and not through
intermediate authorities.
 SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
TERRITORIAL STATE
5. Direct government and
administration of the inhabitants by
the central authorities of a
nation-state implies a certain degree
of standardization or even
homogenization in the treatment of
the inhabitants
 SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
TERRITORIAL STATE
6. while a nation-state composed of people without
political rights or positive participation in its affairs is
possible, the heritage of the Age of Revolution has
been to turn most states into citizen states, at least
in theory. In such cases the state is considered to
represent ‘the people’, and ‘the people’ to be the
source of sovereignty, or at least to give the state
legitimacy, most commonly by some form of
election or plebiscite, or some other form of public
ritual symbolizing the unity of people and state
• Between the era of the American and French
Revolutions and the mid- twentieth century,
states with the characteristics noted above
changed in several significant respects. They
extended their range, power and functions
almost continuously.
• With the democratization of politics in the late
nineteenth century, a new and dangerous
element was incorporated into the concept of
the nation- state.
• Systematic attempts to form such homogeneous
ethnic-linguistic states have been made from time
to time since the First World War. They implied
(and imply) the breakup of all large pluri-ethnic
and pluri-lingual states and, since humanity is not
in fact divided into neatly separable pieces of
homogeneous territory, the forcible
homogenization of ethnic-linguistic
nation-states. The methods for achieving this
have, since 1915, ranged from mass population
,transfers to genocide.
 TENDENCIES AFFECTING THE MAJOR
STATES AND THEIR FUTURE
• The retreat of the state is in its
function to carry out state duties
(e.g. postal services) which today is
carried out partly by private
businesses.
 TENDENCIES AFFECTING THE MAJOR
STATES AND THEIR FUTURE
• It has become increasingly evident
that the late twentieth century
generates problems requiring global
action. Their solution lies beyond the
powers of single states or groups of
states, however large and effective
 TENDENCIES AFFECTING THE MAJOR
STATES AND THEIR FUTURE
• Supranational forces have weakened the
state in three ways:
1. The creation of a supranational (or rather
transnational) economy, whose transactions are
largely uncontrolled or even uncontrollable by
states, restricts the capacity of states to direct
national economies
 TENDENCIES AFFECTING THE MAJOR
STATES AND THEIR FUTURE
• Supranational forces have weakened the
state in three ways:
2. the state has been weakened by the rise of
regional or global institutions - such as the
European Union and the international banking
institutions set up in 1945.
 TENDENCIES AFFECTING THE MAJOR
STATES AND THEIR FUTURE
• Supranational forces have weakened the
state in three ways:
3. Territorial borders have been made largely
irrelevant by the technological revolution in
transport and communications.
 Wave of international migration
• There is a blur in the traditionally
sharp distinction between
permanent and seasonal, or
temporary emigration because of the
present wave of international
migration
 Decline of state centralization
• Since the 1960s a tendency for state
centralization to decline …has been notable in
many Western countries, and the
disintegration or transformation of communist
and former communist regimes can be seen in
the same light.
Decline in ideological mass parties
• The decline in ideological mass
parties, politically mobilizing
electoral ‘machines’ or other
organizations for mass civic activity
(such as labour unions) is one of
them;.
 Consumer individualism
• The spread of the values of
consumer individualism, in an age
when the satisfactions of rising
material consumption are both
widely available and constantly
advertised.
• The current situation of the traditional state
has led some observers to underestimate the
state’s continuing functions and powers.
• States are weaker than before, but (unless
they collapse and disintegrate) they retain
very substantial powers. How much and in
what way they should use them, are separate
questions.
 TWO UNPROMISING ALTERNATIVES:
LAISSEZ FAIRE AND ‘SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL’
• Whatever the most desirable balance may be
between public and private, state and civil
society, government and market, nobody
seriously doubts that they must be combined.
• It may also be argued, though perhaps not
quite so confidently, that the basic problems
of the traditional state are not removed simply
by reducing its size.
 TWO UNPROMISING ALTERNATIVES:
LAISSEZ FAIRE AND ‘SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL’
• Both laissez faire and ‘small is
beautiful’ tend to make one of the
major problems of the world more
acute, namely the politically and
socially dangerous growth of
inequality between regions and
classes.
 THE INDISPENSABLE REDISTRIBUTIVE
FUNCTION OF THE STATE
• Preferably the large state or a supranational
combination, remains indispensable. It is to
this day the main mechanism for social
transfers, that is to say for collecting an
appropriate fraction of the economy’s total
income, usually in the form of public revenue,
and redistributing it among the population
according to some criterion of public interest,
common welfare and social needs.
 THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE
• The state is still the best unit we
have for the time being, not least
from the point of view of democratic
politics, for which supranational,
transnational and global authorities
provide little or no real space
 THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE
• it is increasingly clear that nation-states
will have to be supplemented or in
important respects replaced by bodies
capable of dealing with the problems of
the global environment, the global
economy, global demographic
movements, global inequalities and,
increasingly, the globalization of
communication and culture.
 THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE
• The state will continue to play a major role in
relation to social development. At the very
least, a full and planned utilization of its
resources will help to defend its people
against the uncontrolled impact of global
forces on their way of life
 Next Meeting: Concept Mapping
• United Nations
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• African Union
• NAFTA
• Caribbean Community
• European Commission
• International Criminal Court
• UN Security Council
• ASEAN
• U.S.
• China
• Japan material for next wk: Hans Schattle’s
Reading
• Canada
Governments and Citizens in the Globally Interconnected
• France
• World
Germany of States
• Britain
• Soviet Union
• Philippines