Chapter 5 - Chapter 5 Defining the state o State: totality...

Chapter 5
• Defining the state
o State: totality of a country’s governmental institutions and officials
together with laws that structure their activities
o Failed state: state that has little to no ability to control its own territory
• Characteristics of state purposes
o Sovereignty: exclusive legal authority of government over population and
territories
 Socially constructed and can be constantly changing
o Legitimacy: right to rule
o Autonomy: relative independence of state authorities from the population
• Purpose of a state
o John Locke
 Social contract for a state
o Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 Collective rights and freedoms of community
 People not state are sovereign
• State institutions
o Institutionalism: branch that looks at how state institutions are set up and
how they shape political decision making
o Executive branch
 individuals who decide government policy
 head of state is usually ceremonial with little power
