Examine and assess the claim that 'the contemporary state is in a constant process of legitimation' (Blakeley and Saward, 2009, p. 371).
Uploaded by mrsvigors on Feb 22, 2015
In order to address this claim, I will firstly look at how the state is defined, perceived and presented in everyday before discussing legitimacy, how it is claimed through practices and the relationships between the institutions acting on its behalf and on behalf of its people. The following part of this essay will explore the connection between state legitimacy and democracy and how conflict and social inequalities may lead to the legitimacy of the state being contested, using the Northern Ireland and the United Nation's reaction to piracy in Somalia to as examples of how state legitimacy may be challenged. The final part of this essay surmises the arguments and evidence both for and against the claim.
According to Georgina Blakeley and Michael Saward, ‘the state is: an idea based on shared expectations about the ordering of social life; a set of organisations; and a set of practices’ (Blakeley and Saward, 2009, p. 355). The state is perceived by society through methods of political order, whereby the absence of social conflict and disorder is governed by sets of institutions and services which seek to shape and regulate social order (Blakeley and Saward, 2009, p. 352). Blakeley and Saward portray the state as an abstract concept made up of various parts that provides institutional political order and is present everywhere, through institutions such as schools and hospitals, people such as teachers and police officers, practices such as driving within the legal speed limits and discourses such as the media. The state's authority to rule its citizens largely depends on the belief in its legitimacy. 'A state that is (believe to be or accepted) as legitimate is more likely to succeed in its constant tasks of political ordering than a state that is perceived as illegitimate' (Blakeley and Saward, 2009, p. 366). Evidence of the state regulating order in everyday life is seen in various activities narrated in 'Jill's story', such as the use of childcare and the Post Office and also in the payment of tax (Blakeley...