Rights Of The State Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Following the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the nation-states of Europe emerged as the primary actors in international politics. However, both the formal and informal rights and powers of states have been in decline since the middle of the twentieth century, concurrent with the rise of nonstate actors, including international organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union. The traditional rights of the state include sovereignty, independence, self-defense, and equality in the international system.

The Internal Roots Of State Power

State power is based on sovereignty. Sovereignty, simply defined, is control over people and geographic space. For an actor to be recognized as having sovereignty, it typically has to have a degree of legitimacy (i.e., it is recognized by other actors as the legal authority) and autonomy (i.e., it is independent, not controlled by another actor). For most of human history, sovereignty often resided with individuals such as a monarch or with supranational organizations such as the Catholic Church.

Westphalia marked a period of transition whereby state sovereignty, as manifested by the power of central governments, superseded that of the monarch or the church.

The emerging nation-states had high levels of both internal and external sovereignty that provided the basis for the domestic and international dimensions of state power. Central to both internal and external sovereignty is the right of existence, also known as independence. Freedom from control or undue influence by other actors is the cornerstone of the rights of states. Independence permits the state to choose its own governmental system, interact with other states on a nominally equal basis in the international system and create its own internal laws and policies.

The success of the nation-states resulted initially from their specific internal powers, namely control over the use of force, taxation, and the regulation of civil society. As noted by Max Weber, the state had a recognized monopoly on the legitimate use of force within its borders. This allowed central governments to concentrate power and outlaw or eliminate potential rivals, such as private armies. Control over the use of force allowed states to expand their military capabilities through standing armies and conscription. Meanwhile taxation gave central governments the resources to expand control and reinforce their legitimacy through the development and implementation of social and economic programs. Taxation also reinforced the military capabilities of nation-states and helped fuel the revolution in military affairs through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Independence allowed states to create domestic legal frameworks that regularized trade relationships and customs. Legal systems also helped bolster the legitimacy of the government. These trends, in turn, accelerated the rise of a middle class in areas such as Europe and North America.

External Rights

Independence is also a core tenet of external sovereignty and is manifested in several areas. A central state right, and component of external sovereignty, is self-defense from external attack. The principle is one of the oldest in international law and is enshrined in Article 51 of the 1945 United Nations (UN) Charter. The article recognizes the right of states to engage in individual or collective self-defense, even prior to UN action in response to aggression.

The state right of equality is the basis for international law. As equal actors, states have the right to control their foreign policies, including entering into treaties with other states and international actors. Article 2 of the UN Charter specifically notes the “equality” of states. This right is often questioned by lesser developed states who argue that the more economically and militarily developed nations dominate contemporary international relations.

Efforts to codify the rights of states under international law, such as the failed 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, have been generally unsuccessful with the notable exception of the aforementioned UN Charter, which outlines rights in specific issue-areas (subsequent efforts to expand the definition of rights within the UN have been only partially successful). Instead, the rise of international organizations and globalization has constrained the rights of states. For instance, after World War II (1939–1945), states such as Germany or Japan were willing to give up a significant degree of control over their external sovereignty, including accepting constraints on their right of self-defense, in exchange for participation in collective defense arrangements with the United States. The political scientist and economist Richard Rosecrance (2000) argues that this permitted these nations to concentrate on economic development and become first trading states and then virtual states that had accepted significant limits on their internal and external sovereignty. Concurrently, the member states of the European Union have surrendered a significant portion of control over their monetary policy to the regional body.

Bibliography:

Fowler, Michael R., and Julie Marie Bunck. Law, Power, and the Sovereign State. University Park: Pennsylvania University State Press, 1995.
Krasner, Stephen. Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Rosecrance, Richard. The Rise of the Virtual State: Wealth and Power in the Coming Century. New York: Basic Books, 2000.
Spruyt, Hendrik. The Sovereign State and Its Competitors. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994.

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