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CHAPTER TWO: The Modern State

Study

The modern state arose between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe, spreading via conquest, colonialism, and then independence for former colonies to become universal with the independence of most African states in the 1960s. It has four defining characteristics: territory, sovereignty (external and internal), legitimacy, and bureaucracy. No state enjoys complete sovereignty, absolute legitimacy, and a completely effective and efficient bureaucracy, but some states are closer to this ideal than others. States use these attributes to provide their populations such goods as security, the rule of law, and infrastructure. Weak states cannot adequately provide these goods. A failed state is so weak that it loses effective sovereignty over part of its territory; in extreme cases, the state collapses entirely.

This chapter looks at case studies of state formation in Brazil, China, Germany, India, Iran, Japan, Nigeria, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.