The State

hi my name is alan senz and i'm sitting outside the global lounge here at the university of british columbia welcome to the global politics instructional video series in this series we'll be looking at some of the key concepts in the study of global politics and international relations today we're going to start with the state now obviously the state is critically important as an actor in international relations why is that so well first of all many people argue that the state is the most important actor in global politics today and it's important because the state is a driver of global politics global politics happens the way it does because of the state now many others argue that the state is in decline that it's losing this power other organizations they say like institutions and multinational corporations and non-governmental organizations are all becoming more powerful and they are starting to drive why things happen in global politics but whatever you might think of the state it's pretty clear that the state is a very important actor and a very important part of our subject matter so today let's have a look at the state so let's begin okay so the state now there's a lot of different definitions of the state and you can look them up if you like but the one we're going to work with is the state is a political legal entity and i'm just going to draw a picture of a state like this and all states have a certain set of characteristics and the first characteristic is they all have a border that is to say they have a clearly defined territory where it's clear what is internal to the state and what is external to the state second all states have a permanent population essentially people within the state for the most part are citizens there are some exceptions to that of course but most states have a permanent population so here are some citizens and they all look very happy and of course not all citizens are happy so i'll just draw an unhappy citizen here but the whole idea of course then is all countries have a permanent population third all states have a central government and this government and i'll just draw a government building here at the center symbolize that all have certain responsibilities they all control the territory they control the administration of the territory they pass rules create laws etc the central government basically runs everything internal to the state fourth all states are considered sovereign at least in principle and what this means is that all states in principle are free from interference from the outside in their domestic affairs and states take this very seriously and you will often see in global politics uh states complaining that another state or a group are doing something that is interfering in the domestic affairs of their country and they'll get very upset about that because they'll consider that a violation of their sovereignty the fifth characteristic of states is that they are all recognized by each other that is to say if we have another state let's call it state b state b can choose to recognize this state here which we'll call state a and by extending that recognition what state b is saying is that we recognize u state a as a political and legal entity and presumably state a then does the same for state b in return and this is important because not all states actually recognize other states as political and legal entities and if they don't that really says something because essentially what one country is saying to another is we don't recognize your right to exist and that can be a very very important issue in global politics in addition states that are recognized also will be recognized in the form of a legal standing in international institutions so for example both countries a and b will be members of the united nations and will have a seat in the united nations general assembly the sixth characteristic that all states share is they have a monopoly on the use of force and what that really means is that inside their territory the central government has control over the legitimate use of force inside that state only the government for example can have a police force so i'll just draw a little police officer here and that's supposed to be a police cap i know it doesn't really look like one but let's just pretend it is and the whole idea then is the government is responsible for maintaining order and security inside the state now uh one of the characteristics of modern international politics is that many states in fact most of them have many national groups inside them these nations exist within states and there's a very important distinction between the idea of nation and the idea of the state the state is a political and legal entity but nations are cultural identities and this group of people here living inside this state may consider themselves somewhat separate from the state maybe they have a different religion maybe a different culture maybe a different language and the relationship between these individuals in this national group and the state and particularly the central government may be very awkward for example they may feel that the state does not truly recognize their language or doesn't extend them religious rights or doesn't consider them an independent cultural group and that could create tension because most states want to ensure the loyalty of their citizens to the central government and so they'll promote something called state nationalism but not all citizens are comfortable with that many national groups want to be recognized for their distinctiveness some may even want to have their own state and so this creates a lot of tension and sometimes violence between national groups and central governments so take all this together border population central government sovereignty recognition and a monopoly on the use of force and you have the central characteristics of the modern state so that was the state obviously the state is still a very important actor in global politics people debate about whether or not the state is in decline they argue about how important it really is and there's a big debate about the future of the state but one thing is very clear the state for those of us who study global politics and international relations is still a very important actor i hope you enjoyed this video join me next time

Channel: allensens

Views: 199,208

Rating: 4.9239054 out of 5

Keywords: Clip1, The, State, mov, HD

Id: GtcicQY49AQ

Length: 8min 11sec (491 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 27 2012