Abstract
Despite strong demands for specialisation, it is more and more obvious that modern research interests cannot be addressed in isolation—one could argue that even in research, the world is facing a kind of globalisation. The same is valid also for the understanding of the state, which is often reduced to certain components close to the individual researchers’ interests. In this chapter, we shall try to understand the modern state from the perspectives of different approaches and shall try to establish a more complex view on the modern state, which is trying to perform its duties, but fails in doing so due to a lack of ability to synchronise different fields, or due to its inability to step out of the elitist approach to the role of government. In this manner, this chapter tries to provide multiple and interconnected arguments for reform of the state on the level of political and societal reality while understanding the technological development as a framework and not the primary factor of the social change. The final argument is that the information and communication technologies are providing the possibilities for the changes, but changes themselves happen predominantly in the direction and extent allowed by the elites.
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- 1.
It is hard to define classical state before mid-nineteenth century, since the nature of the political systems at that time was significantly different.
- 2.
One of the newest concepts is New Public Governance, which swings back towards New Public Management and is based on the premise of the neo-Weberian state-centrism (see Prijon 2012).
- 3.
One of the possible explanations is that the political elites got scared from possibility that the state will (due to the privatisation and new forms of communication) become reduced in the state-building elements as well as in what Althusser (2008) called ideological apparatus of the state. Neo-Weberian state concept justifies increased control with limited financial responsibility.
- 4.
The Taliban movement, development of Al Qaeda and later ISIS cannot be properly understood separately from oil control and cold war issues (e.g. Gray 2015).
- 5.
There is incorporated danger that all rejected construction permissions would end up at the second level. This can be avoided by setting criteria when complaint is allowed (e.g. specific measures) and when not (e.g. missing documents and unclear ownership).
- 6.
Representative democracy can be considered elitist, especially in the combination with low turnouts, which shall, according to cyberoptimists, increase by introduction of the e-voting as additional channel of political selection (see Norris 2001).
- 7.
There is long list of EU demands against (predominantly USA) companies to protect privacy of citizens (e.g. Schrems against Facebook) (Nielsen 2015).
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Pinterič, U. (2017). A Trans-Disciplinary Approach Towards Understanding the State in the Information Society Era. In: Paulin, A., Anthopoulos, L., Reddick, C. (eds) Beyond Bureaucracy. Public Administration and Information Technology, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54142-6_4
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