N/A BONIAS
THE NETHERLANDS
The development of the political state
The development of the state is a gradual process that is closely related to the control of available resources by a specific social group. In this sense, social stratification is closely linked to the emergence of the organised political state.
A specific social group obtains material wealth through the control of resources and manages to organize social, political and military affairs to its benefit. Such a development pre-supposes the existence of surplus production that, in turn, pre-supposes a certain degree of social development of a specific group.
The development of the political state is impossible if a social group balances on the edge of survival since in this case, the struggle to survive demands so much energy from the individuals and the group in general so that no social stratification can emerge. Societies that do not produce surplus have a different type of social organisation where no political institutions emerge.
The process of emergence of the political state
The process of the emergence of the political state probably begins when one or more social groups manage to obtain control of material resources and to organize affairs to their benefit.
Slowly these groups are able to impose their power over other social groups and this gradually leads to the emergence of a system where such groups are in a position to impose their will on others through various means, violent or otherwise.
Violence is essential in forcing others to do as the predominant social group wishes. This is why the use of violence becomes the prerogative of the officers of the state. The state only, through its officers, may use violence to force others to comply to the wishes of the ones who control the state.
The use of violence or, for that matter, the threat of using violence is being used to maintain order, to enforce the laws of the state and to defend the state against other states.
The use of violence, or the threat of its use, pre-suppose certain instruments that become the physical expression of the state and its unique prerogative to use violence or to threaten with the use of violence. Police forces, armies and similar organisations develop to guarantee the pre-dominance of the state.
In the course of time, a court system develops to deal with those who break the law. This is another physical expression of the power of the state and its ability to use violence to impose its will on others.
Maintaining such a complex system of control is expensive and, inevitably, a system of taxation will develop that will ensure that the state will always dispose of the means to guarantee its existence by continuing to impose its will on others.
This mostly involves a system that centralizes the control of resources and it might involve gifts to the centralized authority, some sort of forced or voluntary labor or a monetary system of taxation.
The emergence of the political state, whatever its particular form, is characterized by the development of a twin monopoly on the use of violence and taxation and is expressed by the building of an administration with an advanced degree of complexity that aims to impose and perpetuate the control of the state on others.
The state expresses its authority and projects its power within a given territory that it controls. A state without a territory cannot exist.
Increased complexity
As the state imposes its authority and grows in size, the administrative system that develops to become the physical expression of the state, also grows in complexity.
An increased specialization within the state occurs due to the demand for efficiency. Gradually states can develop highly specialized systems of government in order to respond to the problems faced by the state. This process gives the apparatus of the state a more recognizable face.
For example, tax collectors collect taxes, generals fight wars, judges run the courts, etc.
As a matter of rule, the increase in specialization entails an increase in the complexity of the state machinery that is manifested by an increase in bureaucracy. Literacy is also of utmost importance for the development of the state since it enables the impersonal promulgation of rules.
Not a one-way road
The development of the state is not a one-way road in the sense that it is not always development in larger and more complex entities.
The machinery that powers the state can, and indeed as it has often happened in history, break down in smaller, fragmented units that are in competition with one another.
A good example of this process would be the situation that emerged after the decline of the Roman Empire in Western Europe.
States that result from this process are, more often than not, in direct competition with one another and struggle to impose their authority over other states.
This is in fact the base from which the development of the state starts all over again.