Behind the Mask of the State

2019 ◽  
pp. 242-248
Author(s):  
David Nugent
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
The State ◽  
Entire Population ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
State Activity ◽  
Theories Of Sovereignty

The Conclusion draws out the implications of the analysis for theories of sovereignty and state formation. The focus is on state ritual, bureaucratic and documentary practices that produce the illusion of ordinary, mundane rule, the mechanisms by which the delusional nature of state activity is rendered unremarkable, and the processes that undermine the effectiveness of these mechanisms. Central to the analysis is the notion of sacropolitics, a form of sovereignty that is based not on the management of life (biopolitics) or on the subjugation of life to death (necropolitics) but rather on the animation of life. Sacropolitics seeks to bring to life dead, dying or moribund social formations. It calls upon the entire population to engage in public performances of mass sacrifice, which are intended to help create new life worlds that can redeem poor countries from the profane state into which they have fallen.

The Routine and the Remarkable in State Formation

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-27
Author(s):  
David Nugent
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
State Formation ◽  
The State ◽  
Normal Operation ◽  
State Activity ◽  
The Everyday

The Introduction provides an overview of current theories of state formation and shows how the book contributes to those debates. It does so by developing a conceptual framework that incorporates crisis into theories of order. It treats crisis as something other than a temporary aberration from the normal operation of the state. Instead, it focuses on the ritual, bureaucratic and documentary practices undertaken in the name of the state that produce the illusion of the ordinary and the mundane. Chapter One also discusses why it is so important to maintain the illusion of the everyday and why it is so difficult to see behind the mask of the state. Central to the analysis are the mechanisms by which the delusional nature of state activity is rendered rational and routine. Equally important are the processes that undermine the effectiveness of these mechanisms.

Sacropolitics

2019 ◽  
pp. 28-49
Author(s):  
David Nugent
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Entire Population ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
The Creation

This chapter introduces concepts that are crucial to the analysis of The Encrypted State. The most important of these is “sacropolitics,” the politics of public mass sacrifice. This term identifies a form of sovereignty that is distinct from biopolitics, necropolitics and the state of exception. Sacropolitics differs from biopolitics in the sense that it is not about the management of life. It differs from necropolitics in that it is not about the subjugation of life to death. Sacropolitics is neither about managing nor taking life but rather animating it. It is about bringing to life dead, dying or moribund populations and social formations. Sacropolitical efforts call upon the entire population to engage in public performances of mass sacrifice. These performances are intended to contribute to the creation of new life worlds that can redeem poor countries from the profane state into which they have fallen.

The Self-Undermining State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjun Chowdhury
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Final Section ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
Central Authority ◽  
Interstate War ◽  
External Threats ◽  
Willingness To Sacrifice ◽  
The Cost

This chapter provides an informal rationalist model of state formation as an exchange between a central authority and a population. In the model, the central authority protects the population against external threats and the population disarms and pays taxes. The model specifies the conditions under which the exchange is self-enforcing, meaning that the parties prefer the exchange to alternative courses of action. These conditions—costly but winnable interstate war—are historically rare, and the cost of such wars can rise beyond the population’s willingness to sacrifice. At this point, the population prefers to avoid war rather than fight it and may prefer an alternative institution to the state if that institution can prevent war and reduce the level of extraction. Thus the modern centralized state is self-undermining rather than self-enforcing. A final section addresses alternative explanations for state formation.

scholarly journals The origins of the state: technology, cooperation and institutions

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Giacomo Benati ◽  
Carmine Guerriero
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Risk Sharing ◽  
Group Formation ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
Stable State ◽  
The State ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Production Conditions ◽  
Alternative Theories

Abstract We develop a theory of state formation shedding light on the rise of the first stable state institutions in Bronze Age Mesopotamia. Our analysis suggests that the mix of adverse production conditions and unforeseen innovations pushed groups favored by old technologies to establish the state by granting political and property rights to powerless individuals endowed with new and complementary skills. Through these reforms, the elite convinced the nonelite that a sufficient part of the returns on joint investments would be shared via public spending and, thus, to cooperate and accumulate a culture of cooperation. Different from the main alternative theories, we stress that: (1) group formation is heavily shaped by unforeseen shocks to the returns on both risk-sharing and innovation; (2) complementarity in group-specific skills, and not violence, is key determinant of state formation; (3) military, merchant and, especially, religious ranks favored state formation and culture accumulation.

scholarly journals Seigneurial governance and the state in late medieval Guelders (14th–16th century)

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-59
Author(s):  
Jim van der Meulen
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Cross Sections ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Central Argument

AbstractThis article charts the long-term development of seigneurial governance within the principality of Guelders in the Low Countries. Proceeding from four quantitative cross-sections (c. 1325, 1475, 1540, 1570) of seigneurial lordships, the conclusion is that seigneurial governance remained stable in late medieval Guelders. The central argument is that this persistence of seigneurial governance was an effect of active collaboration between princely administrations, lords, and local communities. Together, the princely government and seigneuries of Guelders formed an integrated, yet polycentric, state. The article thereby challenges the narrative of progressive state centralisation that predominates in the historiography of pre-modern state formation.

Contested boundaries

Focaal ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (68) ◽  
pp. 105-123
Author(s):  
Jennifer Alvey
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
The State ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Representational Practices ◽  
Shared Language ◽  
Border Dispute ◽  
Land Privatization ◽  
State Actors

This article examines a 20-year border dispute between two adjacent southern interior municipalities in Nicaragua. The dispute acts as window into the politics of state formation and the consolidation of the dictatorship of Anastacio Somoza García (1936–1956). This conflict was waged by locally based “state actors” who contested each other's attempts to stake and extend spatially based claims to authority. Contending parties developed a shared language of contention that I call “administrative disorder”, which tracked closely with accusations of invasion and abuse of authority. Administrative disorder discourses were representational practices that contributed to the discursive construction of the state. They were also the means by which representatives of the state sought to justify or normalize their own activities. As such, these discourses concealed political tensions rooted in patronage networks, municipal formation, land privatization, and ethnic assimilation, which shaped the contours and longevity of the dispute, but remained lurking silences in administrative disorder discourses.

Migration, Poverty, the Role of State, (International) Law and Development in the Industrialised Countries of Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian-Vincent Ikejiaku
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
International Law ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The State ◽  
Border Security ◽  
Law And Development ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Industrialised Countries

Abstract The current radical strategies by which there is, on one hand, an increasing European assistance to developing poor countries of Africa/Middle East and on the other hand, tightened border-security within Europe as a means to reduce migration from the South; may worsen the state of poverty in Europe, particularly on the immigrants and impact on the workforce in Europe with implication on development. Though, these strategies may sound radically appealing, they are however, unlikely to reduce migration flows to Europe. While there is still a “wide development gap” between the poor countries of Africa/Middle East and industrialised countries of Europe, migration will often increase, at least in the next two-three decades. Radical border security in Europe will expose the migrants to human trafficking in different form and manifestation contrary to Article 3 UN Protocol on Trafficking in Person. The paper examines the role of the State and Law and development, in addressing the issues of poverty and migration within the industrialised countries of Europe. The research argues that there is the likelihood that poverty and human right issues will increase in Europe in the near-future, if the State/EU fails to play their role, by changing their policy direction and repositioning themselves by improving their Law and development stance. The research employs the human rights-based approach, interdisciplinary and critical-analytical perspective within the framework of international Law and development. It employs qualitative empirical evidence from developed countries of Europe and poor developing countries for analysis.

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