States: When, Why and How they Happen (LAWS90150)

States are important, as state-building exercises round the world indicate, yet there are regular suggestions that their significance is waning under pressure from globalisation externally and fragmentation internally. This subject examines this paradox from an internal perspective, addressing four main questions.

• What do we mean by “state”?
• Why do “states” arise (when they arise)?
• How do they manage to establish themselves?
• What problems do states face, and how do they try to overcome them?

To answer the questions, we have to consider political philosophy, history (including the meaning and purpose of history in state-making), the growth and operation of institutions, empires and decolonisation, the use of coercion in the functioning of states, the roles of constitutions, and the relationship between states on the international plane. We shall look at ideas of race and nation and their relationships to “state”, and undertake a number of case-studies, touching on Middle Kingdom Egypt through classical Greece and Rome, England since the fourth century CE, Ireland, the USA, Australia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Students will be encouraged to bring their own experiences and insights to the classes to illuminate the discussion.

Principal topics include:

• Ways of understanding the term “state”: language, sociology, history, and the relevance of “nation” and “people”
• Ways of legitimating state power: political theory and morality
• Ways of holding society together: Bryce, Durkheim and Weber
• Ways of establishing states: decolonisation, revolution, secession, international action
• Histories, institutions, values, religions and constitutions.