SOCI 210: Sociological perspectives

Agenda

The State

  1. The State
  2. Statelessness
  3. Theories of state power
  4. Democracy &
    state behavior

The
State

High angle photo of the Canadian Senate chambers during a session. An ornate room with high ceilings, vaulted arches and red carpet, lined with desks on either side. People in suits (mostly white men) sit at the desks while government officials and assistants in more ceremonial garb occupy a dais at the fron tof the chamber.

The State

In groups of 2-3:

  • Come up with one or two examples of state agents — these are groups, organizations, or people that act on behalf the state and with state authority. Think broadly!
  • Post these as notes on the State agents whiteboard (link) on Teams
  • For the example(s) you picked, discuss the sources of their legitimacy. Why are these agents' actions broadly considered legitimate? Is their legitimacy called into question by anyone? What are the direct and indirect sources of their authority?

The State

What is "the" state?

  • The existence of a state is usually taken for granted
  • The state is powerful
    Law enforcement; incarceration; military deployment
  • The state has final authority in most matters
  • The state is distinct from government
    Government is the institution that organizes state behavior
A military parade of camo-clad soldiers carries an array of inscrutible flages as it moves away from the camera. A large crowd of spectators look on, some holding United States flags.

The state

Max Weber on the state

  • State is compulsory

  • State represented by a centralized government

  • State maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of force

  • State has jurisdiction within a certain territory

  • Sources of authority:

    Charismatic; traditional; legal–rational

E.g. the State of Canada & the Wet’suwet’en

  • Territory
    States’ reach is geographic
  • Monopoly
    Does not acknowledge multiple states
  • Compulsory
    No “opting out”
  • Government
    Does not recognize social organization without formal government institution
  • Legitimacy …
credit: Unist’ot’en Camp/Facebook via https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/01/17/canadian-federal-police-restrict-access-to-wetsuweten-indigenous-land/

Stateless­ness

https://globalgaz.com/visiting-principality-sealand/

Images of statelesness

“State of nature” Three visions of human society without a state

1
All against all
2
Natural law
3
Social institutions

Images of statelesness

“State of nature” Three visions of human society without a state

1
All against all
2
Natural law
3
Social institutions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leviathan_by_Thomas_Hobbes.jpg

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)

  • Hypothetical (rhetorical) human history
  • State of nature is chaos
  • Interpersonal violence only resolution to conflict— ‘war of all against all’
  • “continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

Images of statelesness

“State of nature” Three visions of human society without a state

1
All against all
2
Natural law
3
Social institutions
https://unsplash.com/photos/red-and-white-house-surround-green-grass-field-eWqOgJ-lfiI

John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (1689)

  • Refers to empirical “states of nature” in human history
  • Human reason exists without formal state
  • Mutual respect for life, liberty, and property is rational and natural (natural law)
  • State of nature not chaotic—governance emerges naturally

Images of statelesness

“State of nature” Three visions of human society without a state

1
All against all
2
Natural law
3
Social institutions
https://portal.museumca.org/catalog/2439f80b-06a8-43c1-a3ff-bc15031b72e4

Social anarchism

(e.g. Peter Kropotkin)

  • Proposed as ideal form of society—reject the idea of a natural, primordial “state of nature”
  • Human society can organize itself without a formal state
  • State is inherently problematic
  • Instead: voluntary institutions, mutual aid, norms of collaboration

Theories of state power

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/06/07/mcgill-says-campus-protest-that-led-to-15-arrests-was-troubling-escalation/

Theories of state power

1
Power elite
2
Dialectic
3
Pluralist
4
Poststruc­turalist

Power elite theories

  • Power in any society is concentrated among relatively few individuals
  • The existence of the state creates positions of power that not everyone has access to
  • Existing social hierarchies of power (economic, status, material, etc.) ensure that only elite have access to power of the state
    Empirically, most government positions of power belong to elite
https://static.hbo.com/2021-10/succession-ka-1920_0.jpg

Theories of state power

1
Power elite
2
Dialectic
3
Pluralist
4
Poststruc­turalist
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-20/musk-s-security-team-sought-for-questioning-over-vehicle-assault

Dialectic theories

  • State power based on categorical divisions
    e.g. economic class division (Marx)
  • State emerges as direct result of conflict between workers and capital
  • Power not located in a particular position; instead based on relations between groups

Theories of state power

1
Power elite
2
Dialectic
3
Pluralist
4
Poststruc­turalist

Pluralist theories

  • State is a neutral mediator of diverse groups’ interests and conflicts
  • State as an institution is disinterested
    Aided by restrictions like constitutions, separation of powers, …
  • Stability maintained Balance of group powers over time Intersecting membership in interest groups
  • Change happens because interests of different coalitions fight for dominance In the long run, leads to responsive governance
  • Variant: elite pluralism
    Admits some aspects of power elite theory The plurality of groups jockeying for power are inaccessible to most people
https://www.flickr.com/photos/35278629@N08/9255470021

Theories of state power

1
Power elite
2
Dialectic
3
Pluralist
4
Poststruc­turalist
https://unsplash.com/photos/black-and-white-electric-device-on-gray-concrete-wall-ZL_qgVDSVhQ

Poststructuralist theories

  • Power in society is not linked to specific institutions like state, economy, etc.
  • Instead, power is “dispersed” among the various institutions and relations of society
  • Institutionalized knowledge and accepted beliefs are location of power
    E.g. norms of surveillance that cut across institutional settings, from government to prisons to schools
  • Change is extremely difficult
  • “… Nothing in society will be changed if the mechanisms of power that function outside, below and alongside the State apparatuses, on a much more minute and everyday level, are not also changed.”
    Foucault, Michel. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977. Pantheon Books, 1980: 60

Theories of state power

Democracy & state behavior

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/06/07/mcgill-says-campus-protest-that-led-to-15-arrests-was-troubling-escalation/

State behavior

Much of the theory about state actions is based in pluralist conception of state power

  • Power elite and dialectic theories are basis of stratification research
  • Poststructuralist theories inform thought on interaction and class

State behavior is diverse

  • Military / police / carceral action
  • Bureaucratic processes
  • Implementation of services

How do the actions of the state relate to the will of its citizens?

  • Different approaches to translating diverse ideas of citizenry to policy and other government structure or behavior

Democracy: rule by public

  • ('power of the people')
https://imgur.com/gallery/regulations-regulations-6hPhY#/t/futurama_as_a_religion

Democratic will

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2192317

Direct democracy

  • People participate directly in all state decisions
  • Everyone has equal access to roles and processes of government
  • Logistically difficult, especially at large scale
    Though aspects of direct democracy exist in many non-direct settings (e.g. public referenda, town hall meetings)

Representative democracy

  • Virtually all existing democratic state governments are representative democracies

  • State-sanctioned decision-makers elected by citizenry as representatives of their will

  • Specific forms vary:

    Parliamentary vs presidential
    Proportional vs first past the post
    …
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2192317

Have a good
(& restful) break!

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fsleeping-capybara-v0-wo3w867r3vdc1.jpeg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3D7d20639ae428473056906512b410772fbdb41fa5

From Oakland Museumm of California desription: Photo shows Bobby Seale standing among grocery bags. Two trucks in the background and several people and members of the Black Panthers. According to the Oakland Tribune, March 31, 1972, article titled "Seale Calls for Additional Panther Fund Donations": The occasion was the Black Panther's Black Community Survival Conference held at Greenman Field, 66th Ave., near East 14th. Bobby Seale, the chairman of the Black Panthers, spoke to a crowd of 4,000 who attened the second session of the party's conference. It was a three day conference, the first day Seale said they gave away 6,700 bags of groceries. On the day this photo was taken, Seale said "...the party could give away 10,000 bags of groceries every week if blacks would boycott white buisnesses in the black community." After his speech, the Panthers gave away 1,500 bags, the crowd rushed in and took the rest (apparently not very orderly). One goal of the conference was to get voters registered. This photo was not used in the Oakland Tribune.