The Growth of the State

Abstract

During modern times, the profile of the state has steadily risen as governments have discovered — or people have demanded — new functions for the state to perform and new services for it to supply. Ever-growing proportions of the population have been recruited into employment in the ever-increasing agencies of the state, while more and more aspects of life and society have been deemed to be proper subjects for state scrutiny, intervention and regulation. The modern state is an awesomely effective device for integrating, homogenising and controlling people and territory. With its national communications media and its governmental information services it has an impressive capability to mould the opinions and aspirations of its population. The modern conception of the state is embodied in Mellor’s (1989, p. 32) definition: ‘The state is a legal entity, internationally recognized, whose responsibility is to organise and guarantee the welfare and security of its citizens within its territory, where it is the supreme authority, tolerating no competitor or challenge to its sovereignty and demanding obedience from its inhabitants.’ However, this image of the state is far removed from the state as it existed in feudal times or during the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. Gradually, the state has changed and changed again, with the emphasis during each metamorphosis being on the acquisition of new roles and responsibilities.

Much of the history of the last half millennium can be written as an account of the energy and violence required to ensure that the monopolistic claims of states be respected. Whether through appeals to the nation, the flag, or the national interest, states continue to deploy immense resources on an everyday basis to ensure that this monopoly is maintained.

R. B. J. Walker (1990)