State capacity
State capacity is the ability of a government to accomplish policy goals, either generally or in reference to specific aims.[1][2][3][4][5] More narrowly, state capacity often refers to the ability of a state to collect taxes, enforce law and order, and provide public goods.[6]
A state that lacks capacity is defined as a fragile state or, in a more extreme case, a failed state.[7][8] Higher state capacity has been strongly linked to long-term economic development, as state capacity can establish law and order, private property rights, and external defense, as well as support development by establishing a competitive market, transportation infrastructure, and mass education.[2][9] State capacity can be measured by Government effectiveness index and government competitiveness and relates to political efficacy.
Categorisation
Based on a myriad of typologies proposed by authors and scholars in the social sciences field (including, but not limited to, Weber, Bourdieu and Mann), Centeno et al.[10] advance that it is possible to break down the concept of "state capacity" into four different types or categories as shown below:
1) Territorial: it is related to the traditional Weberian concept of monopoly over the means of violence and makes us think of the state as a disciplinary body. This type of state authority or capability is purportedly the simplest to exercise because all that is needed to impose the desired order is the acquisition and use of a sufficient amount of relative coercive force. This power is wielded in two different fronts: firstly, vis a vis other states defining sovereignty and secondly, against internal or domestic opposition.
2) Economic: it entails two distinct but frequently related processes. First, this is about the state guaranteeing the society's general prosperity by consolidating an economic space through the development of a national market alongside the physical and legal infrastructure necessary to support the integration of that domestic economy into a global system of exchange. The ability to direct and appropriate resources through the creation of a productive fiscal system is the second facet of the economic capacity.
3) Infrastructural: it refers to the ability to process information, create organisational structures, and maintain transportation and communication systems.
4) Symbolic: although of much more ambiguous nature than the other categories, it is defined as the monopoly over the judgment of truth claims. In other words, this category is linked to the state capacity to transform what are diffuse social rituals and practices of conformity to authority into an objectified and bureaucratic process.
Risk factor for violence
The risk of civil war increases when relational state capacity is low, meaning the state has less control over its subjects than outsiders, or challengers to its domain (the
Applications
There are multiple dimensions of state capacity, as well as varied indicators of state capacity.
State capacity is distinct from political control, as the latter refers to the tactics that states use to gain compliance from society.[15]
The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) determined that basic state capacities are to
- Assist in the acquisition of new technologies
- Mobilize and channel resources to productive sectors
- Enforce standards and regulations
- Establish social pacts
- Fund deliver and regulate services and social programmes[16]
States must be able to create the
- Political Capacity to address the extent to which the necessary coalitions or political settlements can be built
- Resource Mobilization Capacity to generate resources for investment and social development
- Allocate Resources To Productive And Welfare-Enhancing Sectors[16]
State formation
State capacity may involve an expansion of the state's information-gathering abilities. In processes of state-building, states began implementing a regular and reliable census, the regular release of statistical yearbooks, and civil and population registers, as well as establishing a government agency tasked with processing statistical information.[17]
Mark Dincecco distinguishes between state capacity (the state's ability to accomplish its intended actions) and "effective statehood" (the political arrangements that enable the state to best accomplish its intended actions).[1] He argues that fiscal centralization and institutional impartiality are key to effective statehood.[1]
See also
- State (polity)
- State formation
- State building
- Capacity-building
Further reading
- Müller-Crepon, C. (2021). "State reach and development in Africa since the 1960s: New data and analysis." Political Science Research and Methods.
- Kocher, Matthew Adam (2010). "State Capacity as a Conceptual Variable". Yale Journal of International Affairs.
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-108-33755-7.
- ^ SSRN 4022645.
- JSTOR 26364315.
- S2CID 133292367.
- ISSN 1744-1374.
- ISSN 1094-2939.
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- S2CID 143220503.
- ^ Dincecco, Mark (2022-05-02). "State Capacity in Historical Political Economy: What, How, Why, and Why Not?". Broadstreet. Retrieved 2022-05-02.
- ISBN 978-1-107-31130-5.
- ^ Müller-Crepon C, Hunziker P, Cederman LE. Roads to Rule, Roads to Rebel: Relational State Capacity and Conflict in Africa. J Conflict Resolut. 2021 Feb;65(2-3):563-590. doi: 10.1177/0022002720963674. Epub 2020 Oct 6. PMID: 33487734; PMCID: PMC7797612.
- S2CID 235409424.
- ISSN 1094-2939.
- ^ Suryanarayan, Pavithra (2021-04-12). "State capacity: a useful concept or meaningless pablum?". Broadstreet. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
- S2CID 244783975.
- ^ a b UNRISD 2010. "Building State Capacity for Poverty Reduction." Chapter 10, pp. 3–36.
- S2CID 133292367.