Governments in the global age
Liberal democratic state
What is the nation state?
Organized and authoritative focus of politics and deployment of public power
Govt. and its apparatus (the state)
Unified cultural identity (the nation/or nations)
A legal entity recognized internationally
The state before liberalism
Hierarchic and concentrated top-down systems of authority
Empire / kingship / aristocracy
Or small republican states: city states
The birth of liberalism
Enlightenment – gave birth to wo modern ways of thinking: scientific inquiry and liberalism
One is an is (positive – describing the world as it is) the other an ought (normative -
scientific)
As time goes by and we become used to movements ideas, the initial revolution seems less
radical but, it was at the time.
Liberalism
A challenge to divine right (hierarchy)
To arbitrary rule
A philosophical and political project
Locke identifies ‘natural rights’ of life, liberty and estate – these rights limit each other
The social contract
The state is not a natural condition
Exists because people agree to it
People have a social contract with each other and the state to relinquish some freedom in
return for protection of natural rights
Weak or tyrannical state is illegitimate – able to overthrow
Political consequences
Glorious revolution 1688
French revolution 1789-99
American revolution 1765-83
English history
Glorious revolution
But before that, the Magna carta – addressed illegal imprisonment, right to quick trial, limits
on tax, and established a list of barons.
English civil war 1642-51 – concerning the power of parliament (elected by the gentry)
against the king; divine right; the permanent role of parliament (Commons and Lords); limits
on tax; parliamentary proposed policy. Ended with the beheading of Charles the First –
Liberal democratic state
What is the nation state?
Organized and authoritative focus of politics and deployment of public power
Govt. and its apparatus (the state)
Unified cultural identity (the nation/or nations)
A legal entity recognized internationally
The state before liberalism
Hierarchic and concentrated top-down systems of authority
Empire / kingship / aristocracy
Or small republican states: city states
The birth of liberalism
Enlightenment – gave birth to wo modern ways of thinking: scientific inquiry and liberalism
One is an is (positive – describing the world as it is) the other an ought (normative -
scientific)
As time goes by and we become used to movements ideas, the initial revolution seems less
radical but, it was at the time.
Liberalism
A challenge to divine right (hierarchy)
To arbitrary rule
A philosophical and political project
Locke identifies ‘natural rights’ of life, liberty and estate – these rights limit each other
The social contract
The state is not a natural condition
Exists because people agree to it
People have a social contract with each other and the state to relinquish some freedom in
return for protection of natural rights
Weak or tyrannical state is illegitimate – able to overthrow
Political consequences
Glorious revolution 1688
French revolution 1789-99
American revolution 1765-83
English history
Glorious revolution
But before that, the Magna carta – addressed illegal imprisonment, right to quick trial, limits
on tax, and established a list of barons.
English civil war 1642-51 – concerning the power of parliament (elected by the gentry)
against the king; divine right; the permanent role of parliament (Commons and Lords); limits
on tax; parliamentary proposed policy. Ended with the beheading of Charles the First –
