THE STATE The State can be defined as a political association that estalishes sovereign jurisdiction within defined terrirorial borders and exercises authority through a set of permanent institutions.

THE STATE… 5 key features of the state The state exercises sovereignity State institutions are recognisable ‘public’, in contrast to the ‘private’ institutions of the civil society The state is an exercise in legitimation The state is an instrument in domination Weber: The state has a monopoly of the means of ‘legitimate violence’. 5. The state is a territorial association

Variaties of the State Minimal States (nightwatchman states) : advocated by classical liberals and the New Right- just peace and social order Developmental States: close relationship between the state and the economic interests of big business, aim to develop strategies for national prosperity in a context of transnational competition.

Varieties of the state.. Social-democrat state: İntervene widely in economic and social life for growth and full employment, reduce poverty, more equtable distribution of social rewards. Collectivised (socialist) states: found in ex- communist countrie, abolished private enterprice altogether and set up centrally planned economies. Totalitarian state: penetrate every aspect of human existence through a combination of comprehensive surveillance and terroristic policing, ideological manuplation and control.

The State-The Government The state is an inclusive association that encompasses all the institutions of the public realm and embraces all the members of the community. The government is part of the state, is the means through which the authority of the state is brought into operation. The state is a permanent entity while government temporary.

The State- The Government… The state exercises impersonal authority The state represents the public interest or the common good. Government represents the sympathies of those who happen to be in power at any particular time.

Theories of the state (the nature of state power) Liberals view the state as a neutral arbiter amongst competing interests and groups in society. Marxists have portrayed the state as an instrument of class oppression, a ‘bourgeois’ state, or allowinf for its ‘relative autonomy’ from the ruling class. Democratic Socialists regard the state as an embodiment of the common good Conservatives linked the state to the need for athority and discipline to protect society from incipient disorder, so they prefer strong state.

The New Right highlighted the non-legitimate character of the state, by emphasizing its own interests seperate from the larger society and also detriment of the economic performance Feminists have viewed the state as an instrument of male power, the ‘patriarchial’ state serving to exclude women from the public arena Anarchists argue that the state is nothing less than legalised oppression operating in the interests of the powerful, propertied and priviliged.