Chapter Four

State, Government, and Citizenship

 Chapter Objectives

After the successful completion of this chapter, students will be able

to:
 Define the terms of state, government, and citizenship.
 Understand the contending theories of state, government and
citizenship.
 Discern the rights and duties of citizens’ vis-à-vis to the attributes of
a good citizenship.
 List and explain the differences and similarities of state, government
and citizenship theories.
 Comprehend the weaknesses and strengthens of the various state
structures and government systems.
 Enumerate and understand the ways of acquiring and losing
 Understanding State
 Four Perspectives: idealist, functionalist, an organizational, and an
international perspectives.
1. Idealist approach - Hegel - identified three moments of social existence:
the family, civil society, and the state.
 Family - a particular altruism operates that encourages people to set aside
their own interests for the good of their children or relatives.
 Civil society - a sphere of ‘universal egoism’ in which individuals place
their own interests before those of others.
 State - ethical community underpinned by mutual sympathy – ‘universal
altruism’.
 Critic - it fosters an uncritical reverence for the state – defines it in ethical
terms, fails to distinguish clearly between institutions that are part of the
2. Functionalist approaches - focus on the role or purpose

of state institutions.
 The central function - the maintenance of social order.
 State : set of institutions that uphold order and deliver

social stability.
 neo-Marxists - a mechanism through which class conflict

is ameliorated to ensure the long-term survival of the

capitalist system.
 Critic - it tends to associate any institution that

maintains order (such as the family, mass media, trade

3. International approach - views state primarily as an actor on the
world stage - basic unit of international politics.
 It has two faces, one looking outwards and the other looking inwards.
 Inward-looking face - relations with the individuals and groups that
live within its borders – its ability to maintain domestic order, the
international view – the state’s outward-looking face - relations with
other states - its ability to provide protection against external attack.
 The classic definition of the state in international law - Montevideo
Convention on the Rights and Duties of the State (1933) - Article 1 :
the state has four features: a defined territory, permanent population,
an effective government and sovereignty.
Recognition ?
 Rival Theories of State
There are various rival theories of the state, each of which offers a
different account of its origins, development and impact on society .
i. The Pluralist State
 Very clear liberal lineage.
 It stems from the belief that the state acts as an ‘umpire’ or ‘referee’ in
society.
 Dominated mainstream political analysis - within the Euro-American
thought.
 The origins - social-contract theories - Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.
 The state had arisen out of a voluntary agreement, or social contract,
made by individuals who recognized that only the establishment of a
sovereign power could safeguard them from the insecurity, disorder and
brutality of the state of nature

 With a state, order and civilized existence are
guaranteed and liberty is protected.
 Locke – “where there is no law there is no freedom”.
 The state - neutral arbiter amongst the competing
groups and individuals in society
 It acts in the interests of all citizens, and therefore
represents the common good or public interest.
 Hobbes - stability and order could be secured only
through the establishment of an absolute and
unlimited state, with power that could be neither
challenged, nor questioned.
 He held that citizens are confronted by a stark choice
between absolutism and anarchy.
 Locke, on the other hand, developed a more typically
liberal defense of the limited state.
 The purpose of the state is very specific: it is restricted to the defense
of a set of ‘natural’ or God-given individual rights; namely, life, liberty
and property.
 Locke - constitutional and representative government.
 These ideas were developed in the twentieth century into the
pluralist theory of the state.
 Pluralism - within liberal democracies, power is widely and evenly
dispersed.
 The state is neutral.
 The state is not biased in favor of any particular interest or group,
and it does not have an interest of its own that is separate from those
of society.
 Schwarzmantel (1994) put it, the state is ‘the servant of society
ii. The Capitalist State

 Marxists - argued that the state cannot be understood separately

from the economic structure of society.
 State is nothing but an instrument of class oppression - emerges
out of, and in a sense reflects, the class system.
 Marx - the state is part of a ‘superstructure’ that is determined or
conditioned by the economic ‘base’, which can be seen as the real
foundation of social life.
 The state cannot be understood except in a context of unequal
class power, and that the state arises out of, and reflects, capitalist
society, by acting either as an instrument of oppression wielded by
the dominant class, or, more subtly, as a mechanism through which
class antagonisms are ameliorated.
 Marx did not see the state as a necessary or enduring social formation.
 He predicted that, as class antagonisms faded, the state would ‘wither
away’, meaning that a fully communist society would also be stateless.
 Since the state emerged out of the class system, once the class system
had been abolished, the state, quite simply, loses its reason for existence.

iii. The Leviathan State

 Associated in modern politics with the New Right - commitment to a
radical form of individualism.
 The New Right - neoliberal wing – shows strong antipathy towards state
intervention in economic and social life, born out of the belief that the
state is parasitic growth that threatens both individual liberty and
economic security.
 The state, instead of being, as pluralists suggest, an impartial umpire or
arbiter, is an overbearing ‘nanny’, desperate to interfere or meddle in
every aspect of human existence.
 The state pursues interests that are separate from those of society.
 Bureaucratic self-interest invariably supports ‘big’ government and
state intervention, because this leads to an enlargement of the
bureaucracy itself, which helps to ensure job security, improve pay,
open up promotion prospects and enhance the status of public
officials.

iv. The Patriarchal State

 Feminist theory encompasses a range of traditions and
perspectives, and has thus generated a range of very different
attitudes towards state power.
 Feminists have usually not regarded the nature of state power
as a central political issue, preferring instead to concentrate
on the deeper structure of male power centered on institutions
 The idea that the state exercises a monopoly of
legitimate violence is compromised by the routine use of
violence and intimidation in family and domestic life.
Radical feminists - state power reflects a deeper structure
of oppression in the form of patriarchy.
There are a number of similarities between Marxist and
Radical feminist views of state power.
Both groups, for example, deny that the state is an
autonomous entity bent on the pursuit of its own interests.
Whereas Marxists place the state in an economic context,
radical feminists place it in a context of gender inequality,
and insist that it is essentially an institution of male power.
 The Role of the State
Anarchists - dismiss the state as fundamentally evil and unnecessary.
Most political thinkers have regarded the state as - worthwhile.
There is profound disagreement about the exact role the state should play,
and therefore about the proper balance between the state and civil society.
i. Minimal states
 The ideal of classical liberals - individuals enjoy the widest possible realm
of freedom.
 Rooted in social-contract theory.
 Advances an essentially ‘negative’ view of the state.
 The state has the capacity to constrain human behavior and thus to
prevent individuals encroaching on the rights and liberties of others.
 The state is merely a protective body, its core function being to provide a
framework of peace and social order within which citizens can conduct
their lives as they think best.
 The state exists to maintain domestic order.
 It provides protection against external attack.
 The institutional apparatus of a minimal state is thus limited to a
police force, a court system and a military of some kind.
 Economic, social, cultural, moral and other responsibilities belong
to the individual, and are therefore firmly part of civil society.
 Pronounced by free-market or classical economic theories.

ii. Developmental States

 A developmental state is one that intervenes in economic life with
the specific purpose of promoting industrial growth and economic
development.
 An attempt to construct a partnership between the state and
major economic interests, often underpinned by conservative and
 The classic example of a developmental state is Japan - Meiji Period (1868–
1912).
 Since 1945, the developmental role of the Japanese state has been assumed
by the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), which,
together with the Bank of Japan, helps to shape private investment decisions
and steer the Japanese economy towards international competitiveness.
 France, Germany, and Austria – at some point followed developmental state.
 East Asian Tigers - The Seven Dragons - Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand,
Indonesia and Taiwan.

iii. Social Democratic (Welfare) States

 Whereas developmental states practice interventionism in order to stimulate
economic progress, social-democratic states intervene with a view to bringing
about broader social restructuring, usually in accordance with principles such
as fairness, equality and social justice.
 There is a shift from a ‘negative’ view of the state, which sees it as little more
than a necessary evil, to a positive view of the state, in which it is seen as a
 The ideal of both modern liberals and democratic socialists.
 The social-democratic state is an active participant - to rectify the
imbalances and injustices of a market economy.
 Focus less upon the generation of wealth and more upon what is
seen as the equitable or just distribution of wealth.
 An attempt to eradicate poverty and reduce social inequality.
 The twin features of a social democratic state are therefore
Keynesianism and social welfare.
 Keynesian economic policies is to ‘manage’ or ‘regulate’ capitalism
with a view to promoting growth and maintaining full employment.
 Welfare policies has led to the emergence of so called ‘welfare
states’, whose responsibilities have extended to the promotion of
social well-being amongst their citizens
iv. Collectivized States
 Bring the entirety of economic life under state control.
 USSR and throughout Eastern Europe
 Sought to abolish private enterprise altogether, and set up
centrally planned economies administered by a network of
economic ministries and planning committees.
 So-called ‘command economies’ were therefore established that
were organized through a system of ‘directive’ planning that was
ultimately controlled by the highest organs of the communist party.
 The justification for state collectivization stems from a fundamental
socialist preference for common ownership over private property.
 The classical writings of Marx and Engels.

v. Totalitarian States
 Pronounces the most extreme and extensive form of
interventionism.
 Argues for the construction of an all-embracing state, the influence
of which penetrates every aspect of human existence.
 The state brings not only the economy, but also education, culture,
religion, family life and so on under direct state control.
 Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s USSR, Mussolini’s Italy and Saddam
Hussein’s Iraq.
 The central pillars of such regimes are a comprehensive process of
surveillance and terroristic policing, and a pervasive system of
ideological manipulation and control.
 Totalitarian states effectively extinguish civil society and abolish the
 .

vi. Religious States

 Since the 1980s has witnessed the rise of the religious
state, driven by the tendency within religious
fundamentalism to reject the public/private divide and to
view religion as the basis of politics.
 Fundamentalist movements have typically looked to
seize control of the state and to use it as an instrument
of moral and spiritual regeneration.
 ‘Islamization’ introduced in Pakistan under General Zia-
ul-Haq after 1978, the establishment of an ‘Islamic state’
in Iran as a result of the 1979 revolution,
 Understanding Government
 Government - include any mechanism through which
ordered rule is maintained.
 Central features - ability to make collective decisions and the
capacity to enforce them.
 Formal and institutional processes that operate at the
national level to maintain public order and facilitate
collective action.
 Organ - administers a country and main organization dealing
with affairs of the whole country.
 Political organization comprising individuals and institutions
authorized to formulate public policies and conduct affairs of
Empowered to establish and regulate the interrelationships
of the people within their territorial confines.
Any government - stable and effective – possess : authority
and legitimacy.
Authority - ability to compel obedience - ‘legitimate power.’
Power - ability to influence the behavior of others, authority
is the right to do so.
Authority is the legitimacy, justification and right to
exercise that power.
Legitimacy – (legitimare, meaning ‘to declare lawful’) -
broadly means rightfulness.
 It confers on an order or commands an authoritative or binding
character, thus transforming power in to authority.
 It is the popular acceptance of a governing regime or law as an
authority.

Purposes and Functions of Government

 The main purpose of the state is to protect rights and to preserve justice.

 Self-Preservation
 Distribution and Regulation of Resources
 Management of Conflicts
 Fulfillment of Social or Group Aspirations
 Protection of Rights of Citizens
 Protection of Property
 Implementations of Moral Conditions
 Understanding Citizenship
 Citizen - person who is a legal member of a particular State
and one who owes allegiance to that State.
 A person entitled to whatever prerogatives and
encumbered with responsibilities.
 Citizenship - the means by which we determine whether a
person is legal member of a particular State or otherwise.
 Citizenship - denotes to the network of relationships
between the State and the citizen.
It’s notion and the meaning attached to it changes with the

change in political thoughts, ideologies, policies and

government.
 Theorizing Citizenship
Citizenship in Liberal Thought
 Begins with the individual person (the self).
 The self exists as the true symbol of liberal theory.
 Offers a strong emphasis to the individual liberty of the

citizen, and rights that adhere to each and every person.

 Insist that individuals should be free to decide on their

own conception of the good life.

 Individual citizens act rationally, corresponding to the

constitutions and laws of the State, to advance their

own interests.
 The individual is morally prior to the community.
 The community matters only because it contributes to
the well-being of the individuals who compose it.
 Liberalists - individual person shapes all other social
aggregations, including the state.
 Citizenship and other political institutions in a given
State are means that are accepted only conditionally –
foster the maximization of the citizen’s
preferences/benefits.
 The role of the State is to protect and create
convenient environment to help citizens enjoy and
There are three fundamental principles which a liberal government
must provide and protect:
(1) equality - government has to treat individuals who are similarly
situated in the same way and afford them the same rights;
(2) due process - government is required to treat individuals over
whom it exercises power fairly; and
(3) mutual consent - membership in the political community rests on
the consensual relationship between the individual and the state.
 Generally - bedrock - liberal theory of citizenship are: individuals
are free to form their own opinions, pursue their own projects, and
transact their own business untrammeled by the State’s political
agenda and coercive power.
Citizenship cannot be defined based on shared identity or a
common culture.
This does not imply the complete rejection of culture and identity
as such, but identity and culture are not a priori foundations for
citizenship.
 Critics – ?
Citizenship in Communitarian Thought
 Emphasizes on the importance of society in articulating the good.
 The identity of citizens cannot be understood outside the territory
in which they live, their culture and traditions - basis of its rules
and procedures and legal policy is the shared common good.
 The political subject - belongs to a community, a community to
which he/she owes allegiance and loyalty.
 Rather than viewing group practices as the product of individual
choices, communitarians view individuals as the product of
 Deny that the interests of communities can be reduced to the
interests of their individual members.
 Privileging individual autonomy is seen as destructive of communities.
 A healthy community maintains a balance between individual
choice and protection of the communal way of life and seeks to limit
the extent to which the former can erode the latter.
 The good of the community is much above individual rights and
citizenship comes from the community identity, enabling people to
participate.
 The State must provide a policy for the common good, according to
the way of life of the community.
 Communitarians examine the ways shared conceptions of the good are
formed, transmitted, justified and enforced.
 An individual’s sense of identity is produced only through relations
with others in the community that nourish him/her.
 An individual person cannot escape from the control of his/her
culture
 The self/individuality is culturally constructed - socially-embedded.
 Individual interests, identity, freedom and equality can only be
meaningfully practiced and realized through the prioritization of
the common good.
 The two defining features of communitarian perspective are:

1- no individual is entirely self-created - citizen and his/her identity is -

deeply constructed by the society where he/she is a member.

2- as a consequence of assimilation, a meaningful bond is said to occur

between the individual person and his/her community.

 Citizenship in Republican Thought
 Put emphasis on both individual and group rights.
 Attempts to incorporate the liberal notion of the self-interested

individual within the communitarian framework of egalitarian and

community belonging.
 Like communitarian thought, it emphasizes on what bind citizens

together in to a particular community.

 Citizenship should be understood as a common civic identity, shaped
by a common public culture.
 It requires citizens to bring together the facets of their individual lives
as best they can and helps them to find unity in the midst of diversity.
 However, republicans don’t pressurize individuals to surrender their
particular identities like the communitarian thought.
 Instead, it is underpinned by a concern with individual
obligation to participate in communal affairs.
 It encourages people to look for the common ground on which
they stand, despite their differences, as citizens.
 In contrast to liberalism, individuals must overcome their
personal inclinations and set aside their private interests when
necessary to do what is best for the public.
 Republicans, thus, acknowledge the value of public life.


Critic - no longer realistic - irredeemably nostalgic ideal in this

age of globalization.
 The conception poses a threat to an open, egalitarian, and

pluralistic society.
 Multicultural Citizenship

 The ethnic revitalization movements demanding recognition of

group rights as well as individual rights.

 The structural exclusion of racial, gender, ethnic, and language

groups
 Increasing immigration throughout the world that made States

multinational and polytechnic.

 They raise complex and divisive questions about how States can

deal effectively with the problem of constructing civic communities

that reflect and incorporate the diversity of citizens and yet have

an overarching set of shared values, ideals, and goals to which all

of the citizens of a State are committed.

i) Taking equality of citizenship rights as a starting point.
ii) Recognizing that Formal equality of rights does not necessarily lead
to equality of respect, resources, opportunities or welfare.
iii) Establishing mechanisms for group representation and participation.
iv) Differential treatment for people with different characteristics,
needs and wants.
 Critics - if groups are encouraged by the very terms of citizenship to
turn inward and focus on their 'difference' (whether racial, ethnic,
religious, sexual, and so on), then the hope of a larger fraternity of all
people will have to be abandoned.
 Citizenship will cease to be a device to cultivate a sense of community
and a common sense of purpose.
 Nothing will bind the various groups in society together and prevent
the spread of mutual trust.
 It would create a "politics of grievance."
 Modes/Ways of Acquiring and Loosing Citizenship
 Citizenship right was one of the rights guaranteed to individuals
by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948.
 According to Article 15 of the declaration, “everyone has a right
to a nationality” and that “no one shall be arbitrarily
deprived of his nationality.”
Ways of Acquiring Citizenship
 There are two ways of acquiring citizenship :
 Citizenship by birth and citizenship through naturalization/law.
i) Citizenship from birth/of Origin: individuals can get
citizenship status of a particular State either because he/she is
born in the territorial administration of that or his/her mother
and/or father are citizens of the State in question.
 There are two principles of citizenship from birth
commonly known as Jus Soli (law/right of the soil) and
Jus Sanguinis (law/right of blood).
i. Jus Soli is a principle whereby an individual is
permitted to obtain citizenship status of a particular
State because he/she was born in the territorial
administration of that country.
ii. Jus Sanguinis is a norm where citizenship acquired
claiming one’s parents citizenship status.
 However, jus soli could not apply to children born
from diplomats and refugees live in a host State.
ii) Citizenship by Naturalization/Law: is the legal process
by which foreigners become citizens of another country.
 The common ways of acquiring citizenship through
naturalization are the following.
 Political case (secession, merger and subjugation),
 grant on application, marriage,
 legitimatization/adoption, and reintegration/restoration.
 Citizenship by political case is a process by which an
individual person acquires citizenship of a certain State
following the conquest or secession
 The Modes of Acquiring Ethiopian Citizenship
(Reading Assignment)