War and the State – Ch. 2 & 3Nisha Deo

Realism/Raison D’etat

•“The Role of the government.. Is to make sure that everyone expects the same thing and that these expectations are common knowledge.”

•Ex: Rule of the Road An institution that organizes

people’s behavior so they don’t

have to think about it

Institution is out of self interest or

materialistic

Institution is set to avoid

personal injury

Scenario for Utopia •Utopian scheme for social organization –

everyone benefits but lacks incentive •Ex:

▫Funding the U.S. defense budget entire by voluntary contributions

▫1) Prisoners Dilemma ▫2) Determining the total burden ▫3) Unlikely unanimous agreement

• thoughts? Is this possible – how about donating to your religious affiliation (church/temple etc)?

Recurring War, Perpetual Peace

• Interests are a more reliable way of providing for the common good than morality to the idea that the actions of individuals in pursuit of their interests can have non-obvious consequences for human social behavior

•Explanations of collective behavior of human beings might resemble explanations of natural phenomena? ▫Thoughts on this? What about genocide –

Rwanda? The Holocaust?

• Interests are a more reliable way of providing for the common good than morality to the idea that action of individuals in pursuit of their interests can have non obvious consequences for social behavior

The Runaway Trolley Scenario

DarwinMechanism that produces

diversity must obviously be human inventiveness, while mechanism of reproduction must be the transmission

Kant“Human actions, are

determined by general laws of nature like any other

event of nature”

Violence, Organization, and War •What is war? •Why would war ever occur if all parties to

it would avoid it? ▫Strong emotions or cognitive errors▫If people are unable to cooperate, there

can be no armies and therefore no wars How about company strikes? Both sides

would have been better of accepting the agreement – right?

Bargaining

•2 people offered money and they’re discussing how to divide it ▫Is Bargaining ever fair?

Questions to think about: What division will the two bargainers agree to? How long will it take them to agree?

The Social Contract • 1) An organized ruling group (the government)

that… • 2) can successfully use the threat of force to

compel individuals… • 3) within a well-defined territory • 4) to surrender economic resources, which are

used to support not only the ruling group but also its

• 5) regulations of population it controls and • 6) defense of its control from other

organizations

The State

•A human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory – Weber

•What legitimizes a state? •Peace and the state – difference

between the existence of a monopoly of the legitimate use of force w/in states and the absence of such a monopoly (hierarchy and anarchy)

•Questions on the state: ▫Can states with a monopoly use force

within their territories? ▫Can states make peace? ▫Can states WITHOUT a monopoly do this?