Examine and Assess How Political Order Is Made and Repaired
Examine and assess how political order is made and repaired.
In this TMA I will examine and assess how political order is made mainly through the state. In order to create, maintain and repair political order, the state needs authority from its citizens to do so and this authority needs to be legitimate. ‘Legitimacy refers to a belief in the states rightness, its right to rule or the idea that its authority is proper.’ I will then explain how today, legitimacy is closely linked to democracy and it is through free and fair elections that the state receives legitimacy. The degree to which individuals legitimise the state is varied and individuals or groups of people can also engage critically with the state.
Creating political order is largely the role of the state. The state orders our lives in many ways and we encounter and experience the state on a daily basis in many areas of our lives. For example, we may need to pay a visit to the Doctor, pay our taxes, avoid speed cameras, go to school or we may encounter the police, the postman, an ambulance etc. As the examples show, the state orders our lives through a range of practises, institutions such as schools, nurseries, agents such as the police and postman and also through procedures.
‘The state (as defined by Max Weber) is an organisation that successfully claims a monopoly of the legitimate use of force in a given territory.’- the state‘s authority may be backed by violence if necessary. ‘Territory is clearly central to Webers definition - the state claims to be dominant within a defined territory or within a country’s borders.’
This theory shows a relationship between the state, its territory and its people yet this relationship is not symmetrical. A possible weakness in this theory is that ‘territory’ is not a pre-given as ‘the borders of a state do not necessarily coincide with the borders of a nation, as in the case of the United Kingdom Of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
In this TMA I will examine and assess how political order is made mainly through the state. In order to create, maintain and repair political order, the state needs authority from its citizens to do so and this authority needs to be legitimate. ‘Legitimacy refers to a belief in the states rightness, its right to rule or the idea that its authority is proper.’ I will then explain how today, legitimacy is closely linked to democracy and it is through free and fair elections that the state receives legitimacy. The degree to which individuals legitimise the state is varied and individuals or groups of people can also engage critically with the state.
Creating political order is largely the role of the state. The state orders our lives in many ways and we encounter and experience the state on a daily basis in many areas of our lives. For example, we may need to pay a visit to the Doctor, pay our taxes, avoid speed cameras, go to school or we may encounter the police, the postman, an ambulance etc. As the examples show, the state orders our lives through a range of practises, institutions such as schools, nurseries, agents such as the police and postman and also through procedures.
‘The state (as defined by Max Weber) is an organisation that successfully claims a monopoly of the legitimate use of force in a given territory.’- the state‘s authority may be backed by violence if necessary. ‘Territory is clearly central to Webers definition - the state claims to be dominant within a defined territory or within a country’s borders.’
This theory shows a relationship between the state, its territory and its people yet this relationship is not symmetrical. A possible weakness in this theory is that ‘territory’ is not a pre-given as ‘the borders of a state do not necessarily coincide with the borders of a nation, as in the case of the United Kingdom Of Great Britain and Northern Ireland