State (polity)

About: State (polity) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 36954 publications have been published within this topic receiving 719822 citations. The topic is also known as: state (polity).

The Structure of Political Conflict in the New States of Tropical Africa

Abstract: Having assumed the burden of understanding political life in two-and-a-half dozen unruly countries, political scientists who study the new states of tropical Africa must leap with assurance where angels fear to tread. We have borrowed, adapted, or invented an array of frameworks designed to guide perceptions of disparate events, and Africa is now uniformly viewed through the best lenses of contemporary comparative politics with a focus on political modernization, development and integration. Unfortunately, it appears that when we rely exclusively on these tools in order to accomplish our task, the aspects of political life which we, as well as non-specialists, see most clearly with the naked eye of informed common sense, remain beyond the range of our scientific vision. In our pursuit of scientific progress, we have learned to discern such forms as regular patterns of behavior which constitute structures and institutions; but the most salient characteristic of political life in Africa is that it constitutes an almost institutionless arena with conflict and disorder as its most prominent features. In recent years, almost every new African state has experienced more or less successful military or civilian coups, insurrections, mutinies, severe riots, and significant political assassinations. Some of them appear to be permanently on the brink of disintegration into several new political units. With little regard for the comfort of social scientists, the incidence of conflict and disorder appears unrelated to such variables as type of colonial experience, size, number of parties, absolute level or rate of economic and social development, as well as to the overall characteristics of regimes. The downfall of what was widely regarded as the continent's most promising democracy in January, 1966, was followed in February by the demise of what many thought to be the continent's harshest authoritarian regime.

Weber: Political Writings

Abstract: Max Weber (1864–1920), generally known as a founder of modern social science, was concerned with political affairs throughout his life. The texts in this edition span his career and include his early inaugural lecture The Nation State and Economic Policy, Suffrage and Democracy in Germany, Parliament and Government in Germany under a New Political Order, Socialism, The Profession and Vocation of Politics, and an excerpt from his essay The Situation of Constitutional Democracy in Russia, as well as other shorter writings. Together they illustrate the development of his thinking on the fate of Germany and the nature of politics in the modern western state in an age of cultural 'disenchantment'. The introduction discusses the central themes of Weber's political thought, and a chronology, notes and an annotated bibliography place him in his political and intellectual context.

Neorepublicanism: A Normative and Institutional Research Program

Abstract: Neorepublicanism may be defined as the attempt by current political scientists, philosophers, historians, lawyers, and others to draw on a classical republican tradition in the development of an attractive public philosophy intended for contemporary purposes. Three main ideas have been especially prominent in the neorepublican literature. First and most important is the conception of a free person as one who does not live under the arbitrary will or domination of others. Second is the associated conception of a free state as one that attempts to promote the freedom of its citizens without itself coming to dominate them. And third is the conception of good citizenship as consisting in a vigilant commitment to preserving the state in its distinctive role as an undominating protector against domination. The aim of the neorepublican research program is to rethink issues of legitimacy and democracy, welfare and justice, public policy and institutional design, from within the framework that these basic ideas pr...

Constitutional Design: Proposals Versus Processes

Abstract: Constitution-making has become an international and comparative exercise in a way that it rarely was in the century before 1989. International' in the sense, that the involvement of experts and practitioners across state boundaries has been welcomed, indeed encouraged, to the point at which a new democracy that excluded foreigners entirely from its constitutional process might stamp itself as decidedly insular, even somewhat suspect. 'Comparative' in the sense that there have been attempts to learn from the experience of states and societies that are similarly situated. In 1978, during the extended session of an elected Nigerian Constituent Assembly that reviewed and rewrote the product of an expert Constitution Drafting Committee, there was great demand for information about .the United States constitution (see Horowitz 1979). The US embassy was only too happy to supply copies of the Federalist Papers, for which there was then a great thirst. But Nigerian comparative curiosity did not extend much beyond the United States. .The situation is changed now. The experience of what are seen as the world's most successful democracies is still sought, but so, to some extent, is the experience of states that have faced what are viewed as comparable problems. If the answers remain elusive, the questions have become far more sophisticated. I do not want to exaggerate the increase in the diffusion of constitutional innovation across international boundaries. This is, after all, a process that began more than two centuries ago. The framers of the United States constitution were, of course, students of ancient republics. In the nineteenth century, Latin American states were

Order, Disorder and Economic Change: Latin America vs. North America

Abstract: Successful societies require a means for securing political order. That we often take order for granted in developed societies does not imply that it is unimportant. Although most economists ignore problems of disorder, creating order is a central task for establishing the foundations of long term economic growth. As the turmoil in post-independence Spanish America — or today in the former Yugoslavia and the Great Lakes region of Central Africa — demonstrates, political order is not automatic. Political order is a public good that must be carefully constructed. Because political order is a necessary condition for economic and political development, we must enquire about the conditions that provide for it. Citizens behave very differently under political disorder; that is, when they fear for their lives, their families, and their sources of livelihood. Focusing solely on market reform or the instruments of democracy is insufficient to help a developing state or one in transition move onto the path of development. We argue that the sources of political order involves state capacity concerning the creation of credible commitments.