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35 - War, States, and Political Sociology

Contributions and Challenges

from V - Established and New State Policies and Innovations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2020

By
Gregory Hooks
Edited by
Thomas Janoski ,
Cedric de Leon ,
Joya Misra  and
Isaac William Martin
Thomas Janoski
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky
Cedric de Leon
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Joya Misra
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Isaac William Martin
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
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Summary

States were the quintessential containers of modernity (Giddens 1985). Although states never completely contained “their” society (Held 1996: 350–351), states did carve up (with modest exceptions) the entire planet into mutually exclusive geographic areas, and within “their” domain, states exerted institutionalized and legitimate power. Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, states penetrated society in unprecedented ways and took on an expanding role in coordinating educational, medical, infrastructural, and social welfare services (Mann 1993, 2012). Bauman makes the case that with globalization giving rise to liquid modernity, the stability and power of the state no longer depend on direct control of society and its institutions.

Keywords

warmilitarismmodernityviolencehuman rightsrefugees
Type
Chapter
Information
The New Handbook of Political Sociology , pp. 924 - 950
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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