POLSCI 160 Lecture Notes - Lecture 35: Palestinian National Authority, Protecting Power, Suzerainty
5 Jan 2017
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Sovereign State System
● Legally equal entities
● Internal and external sovereignty
● Territorially defined
● Dominant now, but not in the past
Past Systems of Organization
● Empires (before 1500, some after)
○ Inequality among units, not equals
■ Center of the empire (metropole) has the military power to dominate the
outlying areas (periphery)
■ Metropole also holds the authority to control the periphery
● Even if some provinces are allowed to have their own rulers
○ Ill-defined borders
■ Frontiers are called borderlands: use military power to limit threats from
the outside without directly controlling the areas
● Feudal System (Medieval Europe)
○ Overlapping sources of authority
■ Nobles who controlled land owed allegiance to a King
● Still had soldiers, could fight other nobles
○ Multiple layers of authority
■ King and Church often competed for highest authority
● Exceptions to Sovereignty
○ Protectorates: arrangements where a powerful country protects a weaker one
■ This is in exchange for control over some of its policies
■ Ex: Mandates in the Middle East after WWII
○ Suzerainty: when protecting power controls a weaker country’s foreign policy
and has the right to intervene domestically
Challenges to Sovereignty
● Non-state polities that act like states
○ Ex: Taiwan, Palestinian Authority, Al Qaeda
● Globalization
○ Some worry that it will lead to the end of sovereignty
○ Increasing economic interdependence means governments are losing control
over domestic economies
○ National leaders must coordinate economic policies with trading partners
○ Security policies must be multinational to succeed
○ Free movement of people erodes borders and loyalties
○ Multinational corporations operate in many countries at once
○ Growth of transnational NGOs aid the idea of a global citizen
● European Union (EU)
○ Acts like a state in many ways
○ Negotiates international agreements
○ Can command member states to change policies that conflict with theirs
○ Provides economic benefits to poorer regions within member states
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Document Summary
Dominant now, but not in the past. Center of the empire (metropole) has the military power to dominate the outlying areas (periphery) Metropole also holds the authority to control the periphery. Even if some provinces are allowed to have their own rulers. Frontiers are called borderlands: use military power to limit threats from the outside without directly controlling the areas. Nobles who controlled land owed allegiance to a king. Still had soldiers, could fight other nobles. King and church often competed for highest authority. Protectorates: arrangements where a powerful country protects a weaker one. This is in exchange for control over some of its policies. Ex: mandates in the middle east after wwii. Suzerainty: when protecting power controls a weaker country"s foreign policy and has the right to intervene domestically. Some worry that it will lead to the end of sovereignty. Increasing economic interdependence means governments are losing control over domestic economies.
