The document discusses different theories of the state, including: - Pluralist theory, which sees the state as a neutral arbitrator between competing interests. - Neo-pluralism, which acknowledges that some groups like businesses have more influence. - Capitalist state theory, which views the state as perpetuating class divisions and inequality. - Other theories discussed include the patriarchal state, minimal state, developmental state, social democratic state, and totalitarian state. The document also covers how globalization has impacted theories of state sovereignty.

1. What is a state?
• A political unit with sovereignty
• A political entity that exercises sovereign
jurisdiction (system of centralized rule that tends to
dominate political life in all its forms) within given
territorial borders
e.g. Financial Bailouts and taxation of individual
savings by governments.

2. Pluralist Theory of the State
• Has liberal origins.
• State is a neutral body that arbitrates between competing
interests of the society.
• Mission: a ‘referee’ and protect citizens and their rights from
other fellow citizens.
• Roots to Hobbes and Locke
-out need to protect ourselves vs the ‘state of nature’
• Locke : “where there is no law there is no freedom’.
-guarantee natural rights of ‘life, liberty and property’.
– Being safe from harm (murder)?
– Speaking your mind?
– Contractual agreements being held ?
• Hobbes: to provide a strong alternative to anarchy by being the
ultimate power

3. • Power is widely and evenly dispersed in societies (at
least in liberal democracies).
-So different interest groups could influence state
decisions.
e.g. The US government and the issue of abortion
(Pro-life versus Pro-choice groups)
The Congress on Obamacare
(Insurance companies versus Poor citizens)
Assumptions this perspective:
1. Subordinate to government: police and military serve
the elected.
2. Elected remains responsive to public opinion

4. Neo-pluralism
• Dahl, Lindblom and Galbraith
-business interests are more advantageous in being
represented
-state bureaucracy can pursue its own interests
Way out?
-More checks and balances
-Transparency?
-More elements of direct democracy (e.g.
Referendums)?

5. Capitalist State
• alternative to pluralist
• cannot be understood separately from the economy and economic
structure
• maintains the class system by either oppressing subordinate
classes or elevating class conflict
• part of the superstructure determined by the economic base
forming the foundation of social life
• an instrument of class rule or a means of arbitrating between
competing classes so as to perpetuate a system of unequal class
power
• ruling economic classes in capitalist states/bourgeoisie
• surplus value
-earnings for factors of production are not equally distributed
Labour produces more value added but does not get its share (Land,
Labour, Capital, Entrepreneurship Rent, Wages, Interest, Profit)

6. • class conflict disappears the state too
• A fully communist society would also be stateless
• lose its necessity to exist once the class system is
erased
-out of the class system
Neo-marxism revise Marx’s ideas
• Economy as only factor explaining political and social
relations.
• Ideology and state power as other factors
• Ralph Miliband, Nicos Poulantzas
Critical Theory: Horkheimer and Adorno
– The Culture Industry and Dialectics of Enlightenment
• Deliberative Democracy:Habarmas
– Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

7. The Leviathan State
• Pursues its own interest that are separate from
society.
• Increasing powers it
e.g. interventionist policies of the 20th century were
not demanded by the public but was a result of
internal dynamics of the state.
• contemporary right wing theorists (of neo-liberal
orientation)
-state to be encroaching on the rights of the
individuals and societies and demand minimum
state involvement.

8. The Patriarchal State
• leading to oppression and exploitation of women
• Feminism and feminist theories
-deep injustices towards women
• Liberal feminists accept pluralist
-want women to acquire legal and political equality
-not question the impartiality
• Radical feminists
-gender divisions are the most significant division in
society
-state’s role implement public-private divide

9. Minimal state
-orderly existence.
• protective bodies of peace and social order within which
citizens can conduct their lives as they think best
• decisions made at the smallest possible political unit such as a
town assembly or a municipality (local government).
• Libertarian ideology support
• E.g. Local schools would be run by the residents of the
neighborhood.
Developmental state
promote growth and economic development
• intervene in economic life to promoting industrial growth and
economical development
e.g. post-WWII Japan with its government organized
conglomerates (corporations).
The Role of the State

10. The social-democratic state• to rectify (correct, cure) the imbalances and injustices of a market
economy.
• Business cycles (booms and busts) are common in market
economies and these coupled with externalities (pollution, income
inequality) defeat the purpose of having a market economy.
• ‘Welfare States’.
e.g. Scandinavian states of Norway, Sweden, Finland, United Kingdom
in some aspects (free healthcare).
• They mostly provide free healthcare and free education to their
citizens (‘Cradle to Grave’ care of citizens)
• Social-democratic states are states that practice economic and
social interventionism.
Collectivized states
• control over the entirety of economic life through a system of
central planning
e.g. SSR of the Cold War period
e.g. Shoes. Green plastic boots of size 42 only.

11. Totalitarian State
• all-encompassing states whose influence penetrates every aspect of
human existence, thus abolishing the distinction between the state
and civil society.
• bring politicization of every issue are and, destroy civil society.
Homework:
What is a modern state?
• What are the characteristics of states in the contemporary era?
• How does Weber define the state?
• Explain why the New Right is critical of the role of the state?

12. Revision and Homework

13. Globalization and the State
• Post-sovereign governance:
– rise of globalization lead to the decline of the state as an international
actor.
– Power has moved away from the state and towards markets [thus
Transnational Companies (TNCs)]
• Economic activity takes place in a borderless world and this is called
‘supraterritoriality’. This limits the ‘economic sovereignty’ of states.
e.g. Inflow and outflow of capital.
• Nonetheless, successful economies and markets depend on the
legal and social order created and maintained by states.
• Globalization also has social and cultural results
– Some theorists claim that ‘time and space’ is no longer existing. Shares
are traded in different time zones at the same time. With the ease of
travel and other technologies the idea of ‘space’ disappeared.

14. Further Reading
• HABERMAS, J, Theory of Communicative Action (Volume 2; London: Heineman,
1981)
• HABERMAS, J, Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (Cambridge: Polity
Press, 1989 [1962]).
• HABERMAS, J, Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of
Law and Democracy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996).
• SPRUYT, H, The Sovereign State and Its Competitors. (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1996)