The Acquisitive State

Abstract

The state is like a mirror that society holds up to itself, Ralph Miliband (1969) evocatively suggested almost half a century ago. “The reflection may not always be pleasing, but this is the price that has to be paid… for democratic, competitive and pluralist politics” (p. 4). If, as Miliband contends, states are mirrors, they are reflecting subjects of an ever-increasing variety and complexity. There are far more countries in the world than there were barely 50 years ago. Immediately after World War II there were 74 sovereign states in the world (Sørenson 2004, 5). By 2000, this had soared to 192 (ibid.). In 2015, there were about 196, depending on one’s definition of a sovereign state. The exact number is muddied by legal definitions and by foreign policy diktat. Some nations, for instance, which claim an autonomous, sovereign identity (such as Taiwan, Kosovo or Palestine) are not recognised as such by the UN, while others (such as the “Special Administrative Region” of Hong Kong) are given independent state status by the National Olympic Committee.

State is the name of the coldest of all cold monsters

Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spoke Zarathustra)