2. Politics and the State

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-48
Author(s):  
Robert Garner
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
New Right ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Empirical Typology ◽  
Distribution Of Power

This chapter explains why the state and sovereignty are relevant to the study of politics. It first provides an empirical typology of the state, ranging from the minimalist night-watchman state, approximated to by nineteenth-century capitalist regimes at one end of the spectrum, to the totalitarian state of the twentieth century at the other. It then examines the distribution of power in the state by focusing on three major theories of the state: pluralism, elitism, Marxism, as well as New Right theory. The chapter seeks to demonstrate that the theories of the state identified can also be critiqued normatively, so that pluralism, for instance, can be challenged for its divisive character, as exemplified by identity politics. It then goes on to review different views about what the role of the state ought to be, from the minimalist state recommended by adherents of classical liberalism, to the pursuit of distinctive social objectives as recommended, in particular, by proponents of communitarianism. Finally, it discusses empirical and normative challenges to the state and asks whether the state’s days are numbered.

1. Politics and the State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Garner
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
New Right ◽  
Classical Liberalism ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Empirical Typology ◽  
Distribution Of Power

This chapter explains why the state and sovereignty are relevant to the study of politics. It first provides an empirical typology of the state, ranging from the minimalist night-watchman state, approximated to by nineteenth-century capitalist regimes at one end of the spectrum, to the totalitarian state of the twentieth century at the other. It then examines the distribution of power in the state by focusing on three major theories of the state: pluralism, elitism, Marxism, and the New Right theory. It also considers different views about what the role of the state ought to be, from the minimalist state recommended by adherents of classical liberalism, to the pursuit of distinctive social objectives as recommended, in particular, by proponents of communitarianism. Finally, it discusses empirical and normative challenges to the state and asks whether the state's days are numbered.

scholarly journals JULES DUPUIT AND THE RAILROADS: WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE STATE?

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Poinsot
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
State Management ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Good For ◽  
The One

The emergence of railroads in France in the nineteenth century raised new debates on analytical issues. The issue lies in the fact that they are natural monopolies. In this paper, I focus on Jules Dupuit’s work on the operations of the railroads. Curiously, he seemed to have defended two contrasting positions: on the one hand, he claimed that unlimited competition is the most efficient way to operate in the railroads; on the other, he stated that State management was the best way to run them. I aim to restore the consistency of Dupuit’s positions. I show that, for him, unlimited competition is not possible in the railroads and that it is not necessarily good for the welfare of society. Therefore, the State should regulate this sector. Then, I specify the conditions under which Dupuit believed the State should manage the railroads instead of offering concessions to private companies.

The Reluctant Planner

2019 ◽  
pp. 127-144
Author(s):  
Julia Moses
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Intellectual Biography ◽  
Role Of The State

T. H. Marshall’s claims that the twentieth century was the era of social rights, embodied in education and welfare policy, has found enduring favour with a wide variety of scholars and social commentators. To what extent, however, was his theory of citizenship and social rights a reflection of the specific moment in which he was writing? This chapter places T. H. Marshall’s concept of ‘citizenship’ within its historical context. Through examining his biography, this essay suggests that Marshall’s theory of citizenship was informed by an appreciation for continental, and especially German, conceptions of social policy, the role of the state, and the nature of community. Parsing this aspect of Marshall’s intellectual biography has important implications for our own understanding of British ideas about the purpose, structure, and scope of social policy during the formative middle decades of the twentieth century.

scholarly journals INDIAN RIVERS, ‘PRODUCTIVE WORKS’, AND THE EMERGENCE OF LARGE DAMS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY MADRAS

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
ADITYA RAMESH
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Definitive Answer ◽  
Large Dams ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Fundamental Relationship ◽  
Indian Rivers

Abstract The nineteenth century witnessed a major expansion in the construction of public works including canals, roads, and railways across the British empire. The question that colonial governments faced during the nineteenth century was on how to finance public works. Focusing specifically on irrigation works and the rivers of southern India, this article shows how different experiments were attempted, including raising capital and labour from local communities as well as corporate investment in irrigation works through London capital markets. The article argues that by the latter part of the nineteenth century, a definitive answer had emerged, i.e. irrigation projects on rivers would be financed through state debt. An enormous body of scholarship in Britain and India debated the relationship between public works and public debt. This article rethinks this scholarship as a technological and environmental history. The article argues that colonial modes of raising capital were dependent on speculating on Indian rivers. Historiography wise, in contrast to scholarship which takes for granted the role of the state in building large dams, it suggests that the emergence of the state as the builder of large dams was part of a more fundamental relationship between rivers, technology, and colonial capital that emerged in the nineteenth century.

Domination and Dereliction: Exploring the State's Roles in Burma

2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacques P. Leider
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Policies ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The One

What these four quite different books broadly share is a focus on the role of the state in Myanmar society. Current scholarship describes the authoritarian state in Myanmar, which has been controlled by the army since 1962, as either dominantly present or neglectfully absent. Censorship and the repression of autonomous spaces in society, on the one hand, and the failure of the state to enforce efficient health and environmental policies, on the other, are keywords in these works that illustrate the double-faced appearance of the state's existence and role in society.

The Economy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Tomlinson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
British Economy ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Late Nineteenth

This chapter falls into two unequal parts. The first charts, broadly chronologically, the shifting understandings, historical and historiographical, of the role of the state in economic life. The second focuses on debates about the performance of the economy, especially notions of ‘decline’ which have been central to those debates since the late nineteenth century. Variegated but overlapping senses of ‘decline’, originating in very specific historical circumstances, have overshadowed much writing on the modern British economy, with, it will be argued, often detrimental effects on our understanding. Such notions need to be historicized—placed firmly in the intellectual, ideological, and above all political contexts within which they arose.

scholarly journals Poverty as a Political Choice: a Comparative Analysis of Reports of the UN Rapporteur’s Visits to the UK and Spain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Cummins ◽  
Emilio José Gómez-Ciriano
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis paper presents a comparative analysis of two reports by the UN Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, one for Spain and one for the UK. In both countries, austerity policies were introduced following the banking crisis of 2008. The UN Rapporteur reports highlight the damage that was done by welfare retrenchment. In particular, the reports document the impact of austerity on the most vulnerable individuals and communities. The paper uses Somers' (2008) conceptual model of citizenship as the basis for a comparative analysis of two reports. Somers' (2008) model of citizenship is a triadic one which sees the state, market and civil society as competing elements. Each one can serve to regulate and limit the influence or excesses of the other two. Somers argues that neoliberalism has seen the dominance of the market at the expense of the role of the state and the institutions of civil society. Austerity policies saw the market dominating. Having examined the context of the two reports and their conclusions, the paper discussed the implications for individual social workers’ practice and the role of social work as a profession in tackling poverty and marginalisation.

Thomas Carlyle, Scotland's Migrant Philosophers, and Canadian Idealism, c. 1870–1914

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-56
Author(s):  
Alexander Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
The State ◽  
Thomas Carlyle ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Ethical Role ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
British Idealism

That the great Scottish man of letters Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) exercised a formative influence over late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century ‘British Idealism’ has long been recognized by historians. Through works such as Sartor Resartus (1833–1834), Heroes and Hero-Worship (1841), Past and Present (1843), and Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), Carlyle transmitted his ideas regarding the immanence of the divine in nature and man, the infinite character of duty, and the ethical role of the state to a generation of subsequent philosophers. The following article will extend this insight, arguing that through the agency of an array of migrant Scottish intellectuals, Carlyle's writings made an equally significant contribution to the development of Idealism in English-speaking Canada.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 204-220
Author(s):  
Igor Fedyukin
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
Personal Projects

The Conclusion sets the broader context for the key episodes of innovation driven by projectors that have been the subjects of the preceding chapters. It explores the role of diverse enterprisers in the evolution of schools in Russia in the second half of the eighteenth century and later. These enterprisers included numerous private teachers, who dominated the educational landscape in Russia well into the nineteenth century, and diverse officials who promoted their personal projects from within the emerging educational bureaucracy. Contrary to the pervasive myth that the “state” has always been and still is the only player in education in Russia, similar dynamics, to some extent, are observed also in the twentieth century and today.

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