POLB91H3 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Area Studies, Fidel Castro, Clientelism
Document Summary
The 2 main types of power that characterize state are despotic power and infrastructure power. Despotic power, which occurs mostly in the south, is the power to control and suppress. It is the legacy of the use of force to suppress and squash rebellion. Control is usually under one ruling power and decisions are made without civil society input. This type of power is rooted from colonial times. It was the state borders that were artificially imposed by colonial rulers. The legacy of rule was extractive not developmental. There was strong despotic power and coercive power but weak infrastructure or transformable power so any challenges to power were put down by force. Characteristics of colonial state were entrenched by elites after independence to protect their interests whereas the civil society had little human and economic rights. There would be pockets of development, take chile for instance; if you go outside the city, all you see is the poverty.
