Politics is often understood as the

study of the state!

The institutions of the state
The power of the state
The role and responsibilities of the state
Different forms of the state
Such topics are extensively analyzed
 Heywood suggests that from cradle to grave, the
shadow of the state falls on almost every human
activity, even in most personal and private aspects
of life such as births and deaths, marriages,
divorces, etc.
 WHAT IS STATE?

Heywood defines the state as follows:

“The state is a political association that

establishes sovereign jurisdiction within defined
territorial boundaries and exercises authority
through a set of permanent institutions”
 Let us take a closer look at the
different components of this definition
 State as a political association
State is an institution which is about governing or
about politics in a country.
We are not talking about a cultural association, a
social association or an economic association.
The state is a political association!
As such, “political science” has to study state!
 State establishes sovereign jurisdiction
The state has jurisdiction, that is an area of
scope of power (yetki alanı).
However, this jurisdiction is sovereign!
Sovereignty is the absolute and unlimited power to act freely (egemenlik).
The state is the only institution with that kind of power, so it is above all
other institutions!
The state is therefore unique!
 State’s territorial boundaries
States have borders around a territory, so the sovereign
jurisdiction of states are politically defined.
 State exercising authority
States have legal authority and monopoly to use
“legitimate violence” (Weber).
What that means is that it is only the state that can
use physical and coercive force when and if
necessary!
A killer on the street
A gang attacking innocent people
A demonstration turned violent
In such cases it is the state that has legal authority
to use physical and coercive force!
To subdue and/or arrest the killer, the members of
the gang and the violent demonstrators is the
job of the state! (subdue: etkisiz hale getirmek)
 State has a set of permanent institutions
How does a state exercise its sovereign jurisdiction
and authority within its borders?
Through its permanent institutions!
 These institutions, as Heywood describes,
are “recognizably public” and
“funded at the public expense”

They are “recognizably public” as you can very easily

identify/recognize them as public institutions making
collective decisions for the public life.

Also, these institutions are “funded at the public expense”

by the taxes!
We are therefore talking about institutions such
as parliaments, ministries, cabinets, courts, law
enforcement agencies (the police and the army).
We are not talking about private businesses such
as cafes, restaurants, shops, malls 
 State is the universal form of political
organization around the world!
In studying state, according to Heywood, there are
two main issues:
State power
The role of the state
 State power
There are four main contrasting theories about the power of the state:
Pluralist state
Capitalist state
Leviathan state
Patriarchal state
These theories have their roots in the previously discussed ideologies
and ideological traditions.
 Pluralist state

The pluralist theory of the state comes from the

liberal tradition.

Pluralism means diversity or multiplicity.

 The idea here is that in modern societies,
power is widely and evenly distributed among
different groups with different interests that
are in competition with each other over
scarce resources.
State is seen as a neutral/impartial arbiter (or an
umpire) among these different groups.

It acts as a referee among these groups without

taking sides with any one of them.
It is a “pincushion” that absorbs pressures and forces
exerted upon it just like a pincushion!
 According to this understanding, the state is “the
servant of society and not its master”

So, the state acts in the interests of all citizens and it

represents the common good or public interest.
 Capitalist state
This theory is developed by Marxists.
According to this, the state is nothing but an
instrument of class oppression and it is part of the
“superstructure” shaped by the economic “base”
So it emerges from the economic structure and
class structure of a society
Marxists believed that once the classes are
eliminated, the state will “wither away”
(slowly disappear).
 Leviathan state
This is the approach of the New Right.
Leviathan is the name of a sea monster that is
mentioned in both The Old Testament (The Torah)
and The New Testament (The Bible).
This sea monster represents evil/badness.
 So according to this, the state is like this
monster, an evil but autonomous entity that
looks after its own interests.
It is self-serving, it wants expansion and
aggrandizement!
That is why bureaucracy is constantly
enlarged.
 Self-seeking bureaucrats want more pay,
promotion, job security; they do not want
to “serve the public”!
 New Right adopts a radical form of individualism.
For them, the state threatens individual liberties
and economic security.
So it has to be out of the economic and social lives
of the individuals.
 Patriarchal state
This is how the feminist theory views the state.
Patriarchy literally means
“the rule by the father”
According to this, there is domination of the
husband-father within a family and
subordination of his wife and his children.
In general, the dominance of the man in family
is reflected in the system of
male power in society.
Although feminists are all considering the state
as patriarchal, there are certain
divisions among them
 Liberal feminists accept
incremental reform and pluralism.
Women constitute a group with their own interests
and therefore, they should get organized in order to
push for reforms for legal and political equality.
 Socialist feminists see capitalist system as
the main problem.

For them, the capitalist mode of production forces

women to be confined to domestic work and gives
them a subordinate role in the economy.
Radical feminists have a negative view of the state.
For them, state is an institution of male power.
State is used by men as a tool to defend their own
interests!
So state is run by men and for men!
Even welfare state works to the disadvantage of
women as it makes them dependent clients or
customers on this patriarchal institution.
In studying state, according to Heywood, there were
two main issues:
State power
The role of the state

We talked about the state power, so now let us

switch to the role of the state!
 Role of the State
This is about the functions of the state, in other words:

what should a state do?

As is the case with the discussions on the state power,
here too there are many disagreements!
Heywood focuses on six different state types in
terms of their roles.

• Minimal state
• Developmental state
• Social democratic state
• Collectivized state
• Totalitarian state
• Religious state
 Minimal state
Main assumptions of this approach is very much in line
with the pluralist model coming from the liberal tradition.
According to this, the state should play a “minimal” role!
 It should act like a “night watchman”!
The state should serve the people only when
there is a threat to the “orderly existence” just
like a night watchman.
 So the state should act like a
“protective body” and provide its citizens
“a framework of peace and social order” within
which they live as they see fit.
Therefore, the main role of the state is to:

1. maintain domestic order

2. make and enforce laws to protect the natural rights

of people

3. ensure national defense.

In all other areas (economic life, social life, cultural
life, moral life) the individuals should be free and
live their lives without any kind of state control,
involvement and intervention!
 Developmental state
A developmental state is one “that intervenes in
economic life with the specific purpose of promoting
industrial growth and economic development”
 We are not talking about a total control but
a partnership between the state and major economic
groups such as big business and organized labor.
 Most obvious examples in Europe are
Germany, Austria and France.
Some East Asian countries such as Japan, South
Korea and Singapore are also considered to be
developmental states.
 Social democratic state
These states want to establish a balance between
the market and the state to
reduce the gap between the rich and the poor.
So in a social democratic state, there is state intervention
in the economy for some principles such as
fairness, equality and social justice.
 In these states, state is seen as a positive force that can
realize equitable and just distribution of wealth as well as
reduce injustices of a market economy
There is the understanding of a welfare state.

A welfare state is one in which the state

“takes primary responsibility for the
social welfare of its citizens by providing
social security, health, education,
and other services”
 The Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland,
Norway and Sweden) are among the most obvious
examples of such states.
 Collectivized state
Here the state controls the entire economic life.
Economies are centrally planned by
some state agencies.
Means of production (such as factories and natural
resources), financial institutions (such as banks) and
infrastructure facilities (such as transportation)
cannot be privately owned.
They are collectivized and are property of the state.
 The former Soviet Union and
the Eastern European countries
are the typical examples
 Totalitarian state
The most extreme and extensive form of
interventionism is seen in totalitarian states.
This is an “all-embracing state the influence of
which penetrates every aspect of human existence”
In addition to economy, areas such as politics, education, culture,
religion, family life etc. are all under direct state control.
There is no private sphere, no independent civil society!
Heywood says that in a totalitarian state, there is
“a comprehensive process of surveillance and
terroristic policing, and a pervasive system of
ideological control and manipulation”
 The typical examples are:
Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s USSR
Nazi SS troops The «black crows»
 Religious state
There is theocratic rule in these states.
“Theos” means God, so literally theocracy is
“the rule of God”
 This type of state emerged in
non-Western countries in the 1980s.
The Western understanding that religion should be
confined to the private sphere and the Church
should be separated from state is challenged.
In these states, the private/public divide is
rejected.
Religion is the basis of politics, so the state has to be
an instrument of moral and spiritual regeneration.
The typical example of this type of state is
The Islamic Republic of Iran.

The founder of the republic, Ayatollah Khomeini

 ECLIPSE OF THE STATE VERSUS
RETURN OF THE STATE
We said that politics in most cases is understood as
the study of the state and that the state is a unique
institution with sovereign power.
However, with globalization, different opinions
have been promoted regarding the centrality and
importance of the state.
According to these arguments, on the one hand,
there is the eclipse of the state; on the other,
there is the return of the state.
 ECLIPSE OF THE STATE
Eclipse means to stay behind shadows.
For example, solar eclipse, lunar eclipse.
Eclipse of the state, therefore means that since
the late 1980s, there is the
“retreat” or “decline” of the state.

This is due to the impact of two main factors:

Globalization
Non-state actors and international bodies
 Globalization
It has been argued that with globalization the power and
significance of states have declined.
With the end of the Cold War, the world was no longer
divided into two poles on an ideological basis.
It was believed that the whole world would come
closer and be united around the Western
economic and political values,
that is capitalism and liberal democracy.
There would be a global market place and
transnational corporations would make the states
“redundant” (unnecessary).
So the borders of the state would not mean much
due to free flow of capital, goods and labor force.

Global Village, painting by artist

Shailly Gupta
 There will also be global financial markets!
Therefore, states could no longer have “discrete”
(separate) and/or independent economies.
The era of “national” economies was no more!
1998 crisis in Russia and 2008 crisis in the USA
were proof of that!
 It was also assumed that with
“cultural globalization” people will be connected
to each other with same or similar values.
 All of these factors, combined with the major
changes provided by information technologies
(internet, satellites, smart phones, etc.) make the
state borders “permeable” (porous/geçirgen)!
In short, globalization made states less important!
 Non-state actors

There are some non-state actors that can in

some cases seriously challenge
the power of the states.
These non-state actors are:

• transnational corporations

• international NGOs

• transnational criminal organizations

Transnational corporations can be very powerful in
terms of their economic size, they may “dwarf”
states with their economic power.
General Motors, for example, is almost equal to the
economy of Denmark in terms of its economic size.
Same is the case with Walmart and Poland.
 The argument here is that with such huge
economic capacities transnational corporations
have the power of influencing domestic as well as
international developments!
International NGOs have also become more important,
due to the new information technologies.
They are considered to be the actors of
“a global civil society”
They closely follow states, they share information,
prepare reports and publish them.
So no state can completely stay outside their
scrutiny, no matter how hard they try to prevent
access to information.
Amnesty International

Greenpeace

Reporters Without Borders

 Transnational criminal organizations are the third kind of
non-state actors that challenge the states, as they have their
own networks, use information technologies and they
“elude the jurisdiction of any state”
(elude: escape).
Chinese Triads
Russian Mafia
The Colombian Cartels
The Japanese Yakuza
The Sicilian Mafia
La Cosa Nostra (Italian-American Mafia)
Al Qaeda
 International Bodies
Some international bodies also limit the
powers and sovereignty of states.
Organizations such as the United Nations,
the European Union, World Trade
Organization have their own rules that all
member states need to obey.
 Heywood suggests that such bodies have
“undermined the capacity of states to operate as
self-governing bodies”
That was one of the main reasons of Brexit!
 RETURN OF THE STATE
Although globalization on the one hand and non-state
actors and international bodies on the other, gave rise
to the idea that states are in decline, there are still
many areas in which the states are important.
 In other words, as Heywood suggests,
“although states may have lost authority in
certain respects, in others they may have
become stronger”
So the states returned and they are still the
primary actors!
 How? Why?

Globalization did not reduce state’s role, it

transformed the state.
It is only the state/states that can establish and operate a
proper system in which the markets function.

Only the state/states can make laws.

Only the state/states can raise armies.

 A transnational corporation for example, no
matter how powerful it is economically, cannot
make laws and raise armies!
But maybe much more important than all these
points is the existence of failed states!!

Failed states show us how important

the role of the state is.
 So what is a failed state?
Heywood defines a failed state as follows:
“A failed state is a state that is unable to perform
its key role of ensuring domestic order by
monopolizing the use of force within its territory”
 So a failed state is one in which there is no domestic
order because the state fails in providing this order;
in other words, it cannot monopolize the use of force
within its boundaries.
In failed states, there are other people and/or
groups that can use force and the state cannot
effectively deal with them!

These are the warlords and their supporters.

 Who are warlords?

A warlord is a local or regional commander with

individual autonomy who acts as a dictator by
using his own militarized bands (groups).
(In Turkish, savaş ağaları or savaş beyleri)
Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum during A former Afghan mujahedeen leader and
the Tajik Civil War (1992-1997) warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
 Warlordism is seen in failed states where the
central government cannot perform as a
sovereign power throughout the land.

In these states, there is civil strife

(tension/disagreement) and even civil war.

In such cases, warlords emerge and they establish

their own dictatorial rule in certain regions where
the state cannot provide order and security.
Failed states also cannot operate as viable (surviving) political
or economic units.

Failed states cannot operate as viable political units as there is

no effective system of law that can be enforced.

Failed states cannot operate as viable economic units as they

are incapable of providing a functioning infrastructure as well as
other economic needs of their citizens.
State failure is not only a problem for the
failed states; it can turn into a
regional and global problem.
There are several such cases as a result of which we
see
refugee crises, drug dealership, arms and weapons
smuggling, human trafficking, terrorism, etc.
 So states need to deal with these problems in an
effective way and develop strategies to solve them.
A transnational corporation or an international NGO
cannot pass legislation for dealing with these problems!
So in order to solve such problems, it is argued that
there has to be a functioning state.
 Some states in Africa (such as Uganda and
Burundi), some states in Asia (such as Pakistan and
Afghanistan), some states in the Middle East (such
as Iraq and Syria) are given as examples of
failed states.