International Relations

& Agreements
SERGIO ARBOLEDA UNIVERSITY – BOGOTÁ 2017-1

Prof. Charles Leveson Gower

The Modern State
What is a State?
 The state may not be the only actor in world politics, but it is widely
recognised as the one that has the greatest impact on people’s
lives.
 But although we live in a world of states today, it was not always
thus.
 At various moments in time, city-states, empires, feudal states, absolutist
states or nation-states have been the dominant institutional form.
 The concept of sovereignty is markedly a modern invention. For how
long and why modern states will remain as the foremost institutional site
of politics constitutes an open question, with some scholars suggesting
that globalisation may be eclipsing them.
The Modern State
What is a State?
 State = government + population + territory
 Modern state = state + sovereignty + nation
 Sovereignty denotes a single, supreme decision-making authority.
 A state as a “human community that (successfully) claims the
monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given
territory” Weber , Max 1948 , “Politics as vocation” in H. H. Gerth and C. Wright
Mills (eds), From Max Weber , New York : Routledge
 While states may exercise power and seek control, it is authority rather than
power that expresses the modern state’s sovereignty and legitimacy.
 Although none can fully control its territory, states nonetheless claim the
legitimate right to make and implement laws of their own choosing.
The Modern State
When a state is not a State

 In some countries such the US, Mexico, Switzerland, Canada,

Australia, Russia, Germany… we find constituent parts called states.
 These states, as California, Jalisco, Zurich, Ontario, New South Wales,
Moscow, Bavaria… as large and wealthy as they are, are NOT
considered States when talking about International Relations.
 When the word State is used, what is meant is the political unit that
claims, and is internationally recognised as possessing, sovereignty.
The Modern State
The origin of the Modern State
 State is not such an ancient term as we may think. It was as late as in the
sixteenth century that it acquired a meaning close to what we mean, an
abstract and impersonal object (and subject), separate from the person
of the “prince”. Skinner , Quentin 2009 , “A genealogy of the modern state”,
Proceedings of the British Academy, 162 : 325 –70
 Prior to the birth of state sovereignty, Europe looked like a patchwork quilt with
overlapping layers of power, authority and allegiance.
 Power, authority and allegiance were not monopolised by a central government, but
shared among different actors.
 Not just “Prince” and parliament, but also the Pope, the Holy Roman Emperor, and
many many others as such as dukes and counts, many of whom were related by blood.
 The fragmented, decentralised system of government that dominated the
medieval period, known as feudalism, had three characteristic features:
1. Fragmentation of political power.
2. Public power in private possession.
3. Armed forces secured through private agreements.
The Modern State
The origin of the Modern State
 A powerful sense of order and social identity was provided by an
overarching Christianity.
 The Pope was considered an authority, but not a power.
 The many fragments of Europe considered themselves as local
embodiments of a much larger universal community under the
power of God and His earthly representatives in the Church.
 Indeed, in many ways it was Christendom that provided the only source
of unity and identity in a fractured Europe.
 The Papacy constantly struggled to employ its authority across all
Christian Europe.
 It always found the opposition to its “divine will” on earthly power.
 Kings and princes, and the Holy Roman Emperor, always writhed Papacy’s will
to adapt to their targets (not to mention the clergy and the Protestant
confessions).
The Modern State
The idea of State’s sovereignty
 Jean Bodin’s (1530–1596) “Six books of the republic”. Power and authority
should be concentrated in a single decision-maker (a king):
 Law and order could only be maintained within a society if one power alone
possessed a distinct prerogative across the territorial jurisdiction.
 Thomas Hobbes’s (1588–1679) “Leviathan”. It constitutes a powerful
argument for establishing state sovereignty around a theory of political
obligation.
 in the condition before a state is formed, individuals live in what he calls a
“state of nature” where there is no “common Power to keep them all in awe”.
Hobbes , Thomas [1651] 1968, Leviathan , London: Penguin Books
 In the absence of an authority, there can be no peace because there is
nothing to stop individuals harming one another. The state of nature is a
condition lacking any rules and therefore any justice.
 Only the establishment of a sovereign state with a social contract in
which the sovereign promises protection in exchange of obedience can
create the conditions of security and order necessary for society to
develop.
The Modern State
Thomas Hobbes’ “Leviathan”
 The main drawing to Hobbes’s Leviathan provides a brilliant image of
the sovereign as conceived by absolutist thinkers; it represents three
influential ideas about the state:
1. The sovereign is supreme and absolute, standing over and above loyal
people and territory.
2. The instruments of coercion (represented by the sword) and religion (the
crozier) are in the hand of the prince. Two points:
1. Sovereign power monopolises law through its enforcement capacity.
2. There is no higher earthly power than the state, including the Church.
3. The State is like a natural human body. Hobbes’s Introduction to the
Leviathan states that the state “is but an Artificial Man”, from which we can
infer a head (of state) with its unique rationality (reason of state), and a
unified body with protective skin (borders) to keep out foreign bodies.
 According to Hobbes achieving peace inside the states does nothing
to diminish insecurity and violence among them. Sovereign states are in
a “state of nature” or “state of war”, called international anarchy.
The Modern State
The creation of Modern States
 The late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were ravaged by pan-
European civil and religious wars, trade wars on the high seas, and
wars of conquest and assimilation in the New World.
 War was prevalent during this period of European history. As an
example, 1555 and 1648 (Peace of Westphalia) there were 112 wars
in Europe. Luard, Evan, 1986, War in international society, London : I. B. Tauris
 European rulers could not avoid war, it was an inevitable process.
 States were considered as if they were instruments for war, as they
had to respond to the changeable situation of the times.
 The states machinery was forced to become more efficient to face
constant war, thus a complete renovation of the state’s
administrative, financial and political organisation took place. All in
order to monopolise (and pay for) the instruments of violence under a
single unrivalled authority.
The Modern State
The creation of Modern States
 The sixteenth century brought new systems of bookkeeping and
collecting statistics was developed, allowing states to monitor the
lives of their populations. Such knowledge was to prove crucial in
the state-building process.
 The management of relevant fiscal resources thus became crucial
to the rise of the absolutist state and its transformation in what we
call the modern state.
 From the seventeenth century onwards, states needed a constant
supply of finance to prepare for endless wars; therefore, the
continuous increase of financial development entered in a “ratchet
effect”. It meant that as military financing never dropped, because
during wartime both public revenue and expenditure levels rose,
there was an always-higher floor.
The Modern State
Where the state and sovereignty are going to?
 Modern states were built over monopolies; besides coercion
modern states claim a monopoly right to:
 Law making.
 International representation.
 Border control.
 Political loyalty.
 Since globalisation became a hot topic, claims have been made
about the demise of the sovereign state.

DO WE NEED A STATE?
The Modern State
Where the state and sovereignty are going to?
A. Pro-”globalisationists” are prone to appreciate globalisation as a
powerful economic and technological force emptying the state,
taking out its monopolies.
B. Sceptics tend to see globalisation as a myth invented by Western
states to promote neoliberal policy agendas.
C. “Transformationalists” accept that some human activities have
now been “deterritorialised”.Some activities take place on a global
social plane separated from the idea of territoriality.
THE STATE IS NOT A POWERLESS VICTIM OF GLOBALISATION
BUT ONE OF ITS VEHICLES. THE MODERN STATE STILL RETAINS
AUTHORITY (IF NOT CONTROL) OVER HOW GLOBAL
PROCESSES AFFECT ITS MONOPOLY POWERS.
The Modern State
Are there different types of States?
 No state is perfect. No state indisputably enjoys complete external
or internal sovereignty, absolute legitimacy and a monopoly on the
use of force, and a completely effective and efficient bureaucracy.
 In spite of the previous, some states are clearly much closer to this
ideal than others. States typically use their sovereignty, territory,
legitimacy, and bureaucracy to provide so-called “political goods”.
 Political goods include security; the rule of law; a functioning legal
system; and infrastructure such as roads, public education, and health
care.
The Modern State
Are there different types of States?
 A WEAK STATE is one that cannot provide adequate political
goods to its population.
 An absolutely clear-cut distinction cannot be made between strong
and weak states.
 States that seem persistently unable to provide adequate security
and other essential political goods are demonstrably weaker than
those that can and do.
 Stronger states tend to consume a larger share of economic
resources; they are simply economically bigger than weak states.
 They also are less corrupt, indicating the presence of stronger
bureaucracies, and tend to be more legitimate.
The Modern State
Are there different types of States?
 A state that is so weak that it loses effective sovereignty over part or
all of its territory is known as a FAILED STATE.
 Failed states make headlines, for example, Sierra Leone, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sudan, and Afghanistan. In
extreme cases, the state collapses totally, as Somalia did in 1991.
 The territory comprising Somalia has been divided among
competing warlords in the south and Somaliland in the north, which
has declared itself a separate country, though with no international
recognition.
 The total collapse of the Somali state has resulted in two decades of
near-total anarchy for much of the population.
 State failure, as the cases of Somalia and Afghanistan suggest, can
have effects far beyond the state’s borders.