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The fundamental question, what is STATE CAPACITY.
"State capacity describes the ability of a state to collect taxes, enforce law and order, and provide public goods."
"State capacity describes the ability of a state to collect taxes, enforce law and order, and provide public goods."
STATE CAPACITY can be thought of as comprising two components. First, a high capacity state must be able to enforce its rules across the entirety of the territory it claims to rule (legal capacity).
Second, it has to be able to garner enough tax revenues from the economy to implement its policies (ïŹscal capacity).
While the concept of State Capacity is fairly recent, the origins travel back to thinkers such as Otto Heinz and Joseph Schumpeter in the early 20th century.
The concept of states in itself is a fairly recent invention within the context of human history. However, as many researchers have shown, the existence of capacity within a state plays a critical role in the development and growth of a state.
Many have argued that one of the main reasons that England leapfrogged most of Europe to industrialization was the existing capacity of the state to Enforce a common Law and adequately mobilize fiscal resources.
Some may mistake state capacity for big governance but it implicitly lies in the Ability to enforce legal authority across board. There have been inefficient states with high bureaucracy unable to enforce the law, collect taxes, and deliver public goods like roads.
A critical example would be the Qing dynasty in China with a large bureaucracy but still unable to collect taxes efficiently or enforce legal authority. Compare with the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan - which developed capacity in response to western threats.
A key determinant of how quickly a state develops capacity is related to their homogenous ethnographies, a review of the literature and study of western Europe shows how nations with homogeneous identity find it easier to establish state capacity,
...a contrast to Prussia and France which had to resort to more coercive methods to reach state capacity.
Over the last few years, we have seen the influence of state directed development in countries such as South Korea whose which has ensured that the fiscal resources of state are directed towards industrialisation, same can be said of China.
Determinants of State Effectiveness or Capacity have been noted such as the following.
STATE ANTIQUITY
This a simple idea of calculating for each modern country how much of that country had been ruled by a government above the tribal level during a specific period of time.
This a simple idea of calculating for each modern country how much of that country had been ruled by a government above the tribal level during a specific period of time.
This gives a rough indicator of the extent to which a country has a history of indigenous statehood. This can help predict measures like executive constraints, expropriation risk, and government eïŹectiveness.
CULTURE
There is a growing interest in the role culture plays in developing state capacity since cultural norms can be incredibly persistent.
There is a growing interest in the role culture plays in developing state capacity since cultural norms can be incredibly persistent.
The patterns of culture may engender patterns of behaviour that are inimical to developing such capacity.
CIVIL SOCIETY
The emergence of independent organisations that may garner social capital to balance out government power within a society is another interesting determinant of effective states.
The emergence of independent organisations that may garner social capital to balance out government power within a society is another interesting determinant of effective states.
State capacity can be cyclical. Nations can develop capabilities to do big things and later lose such capabilities. Such examples of institutional decay is believed by some scholars and analysts to be responsible for incompetent response of some developed countries to COVID19.
Overall, state capacity matters in the growth and development of nation. The ability of the state to secure its citizens, collect taxes efficiently, deliver public goods, and coordinate markets is important to the smooth functioning of the state.
Links for further study are shared below.
This articles delves into how State Capacity drives industrialization. https://palladiummag.com/2020/02/12/how-state-capacity-drives-industrialization/
On response to the Pandemic and State Capacity. https://worksinprogress.co/issue/epidemic-disease-and-the-state/
Some general rules https://www.cato-unbound.org/2019/02/21/hans-eicholz/state-capacity-general-rules
Another look at the China-Japan divergence, critical of the role of state capacity or less optimistic about it. https://pseudoerasmus.com/2014/12/08/china-japan-divergence/
On why there is a weak state capacity in India?
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Urbanomics/~3/LrIuMDrpmsc/why-weak-state-capability-in-india-i.html
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Urbanomics/~3/LrIuMDrpmsc/why-weak-state-capability-in-india-i.html
Some things to ponder, will a federalized Nigerian state have better ability to develop state capacity?
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