The State
The paper will answer these five questions.
1)What is the “state” and what are its primary features?
2)Describe Weber’s three forms of political legitimacy. Is one of them more associated with the modern state than the others?
3)How is political power typically divided in a federal system? What conditions in a country are most likely to lead to a system of asymmetric federalism?
4)How is a regime different from a government? What are the components that make up the regime of the United States?
5)Do you think you live under a weak or strong state? How do the concepts of autonomy and capacity help in thinking about the categories of strong and weak?
The State
1) What is the “state” and what are its primary features?
The state is set of social institutions that coordinate, control and organize society. The Westphalian treaty described the state in five key characteristics. First, a state should have a territorial boundary. Secondly, it should have sovereignty. Thirdly, a state should have a citizenry. Additionally, the state should have a standing army. Finally, the state should have a running government.
2) Describe Weber’s three forms of political legitimacy. Is one of them more associated with the modern state than the others?
Max Weber outlines three forms of political legitimacy. According to Weber, a state adopts a form of legitimacy that aligns to their interaction as a society. The three forms are charismatic authority, traditional authority and the legal rational authority (Abadie, Diamond, & Hainmueller, 2015). The interpretation posits that charismatic authority is dependent on the individual traits of the leader. Such a leader might be a good orator or an effective mobilizer. The second pillar of political legitimacy is traditional authority. The traditional form of leadership is a product of history. An example of traditional authority is the United Kingdom Monarchy. The final form of political legitimacy is the legal rational authority. Here, the legitimacy relies on a set of clearly defined structures and laws.
The legal rationality authority is the most dominant in modern societies. The presumption in most societies is that leaders should emerge from merit (Abadie, Diamond, & Hainmueller, 2015). Democracy requires the creation of structures that authorize and check on the actions of the leaders. The structures require a high level of bureaucratic organization and that limits the participation of the people.
3). How is political power typically divided in a federal system? What conditions in a country are most likely to lead to a system of asymmetric federalism?
A federal system of power has distinct responsibilities for the states and the national governments. The Constitution of the United States of America makes the division succinct (Brown, & James, 2018). The supremacy clause on the constitution states that the federal treaty and laws are more supreme in the land. The constitution also places power on the Congress to facilitate its oversight role on the Federal government. For instance, the Congress authorizes the collection, spending and borrowing of the Federal government.
The Congress also has the authority to donate more power to the respective states from the federal government. The elected representatives of the people can amend the laws according to the wishes of the people (Abadie, Diamond, & Hainmueller, 2015). Naturally, the Federal government has more power but it is only exercisable in an environment if controls. Similarly so, the federal systems of governance have levels for legislation and oversight. However, the more the controls the more opaque the structures of governance.
Each of the State has autonomy internally but none has more authority. The Federal judicial system adjudicates the conflicts between the states. An asymmetric form of federalism makes it difficult to build a unified state. The asymmetric federal system is more achievable in the absence of a strong central command.
4). How is a regime different from a government? What are the components that make up the regime of the United States?
A regime is more permanent than the government. The regime is the entrenchment of a political system in the countries. In the United States of America, governments come and go depending on the occupant of the seat of presidency. The regime relies on democratic principles to ascend leaders into office. The President is the leader of the nation and he or she should be the embodiment of national values.
5). Do you think you live under a weak or strong state? How do the concepts of autonomy and capacity help in thinking about the categories of strong and weak?
I think I live in strong state. In a Federal system that is not asymmetric, it is difficult to establish autonomy (Haas, 2015). However, the Constitution of the United States provides states with the right to tailor make laws. The Federal Judicial system is only robustly expressive and condescending on the States in matters concerning the human rights of individuals.
References
Abadie, A., Diamond, A., & Hainmueller, J. (2015). Comparative politics and the synthetic control method. American Journal of Political Science, 59(2), 495-510.
Brown, D., & James, P. (2018). The religious characteristics of states: Classic themes and new evidence for international relations and comparative politics. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 62(6), 1340-1376.
Haas, P. M. (2015). Choosing to comply: Theorizing from international relations and comparative politics. In Epistemic Communities, Constructivism, and International Environmental Politics (pp. 285-309). Routledge.
