Poli 130 - Chaos and Violence

Week 12: Chaos and Violence (Chapter 7)

Monday November 5: Weak States and Corruption

State Functions

• Monopolize violence
• Human needs
• Foster Equitable economic growth
• Legitimate political institutions (courts, police legitimate) (fair)

Why should you care

• The weak states are just contained to their places, they have global ramifications
• Terrorism/illegal activities

• Terrorists can hangout and plan all their activities because the states government is weak

• Asylum seekers – a lot of people leave weak states and try to go get asylum.

• This becomes an issue because not everyone in the “safe” states want those people…

• Disease

• Weak states cannot contain their illnesses

• Ex. Ebola

• Energy security

• May not be able to provide reliable supplies of oil…leads to shortages and higher prices…

• Nuclear weapons

• When the government cannot keep them secure then they will get stolen by terrorists and lunatics and used improperly

• Environment

How to avoid being a weak state

• Vicious cycle of Politics
• Taxes, taxes, taxes,

• The reason why it is difficult to break out of the “vicious cycle”

Taxation: a difficult balancing act

• Paid for by taxes

• Roads, irrigation, structural shit

• Too much taxation → revolt
• Too little taxation → no government services

Why do weak states = weak taxation → have such limited taxation?

• Economic factors

• Informal sector
• Natural resources

• Some countries have so many natural resources they don’t need to Tax
• Not good for democracy

• Dependence on Foreign aid

• Cultural factors

• Weak national identity

• Political factors

• Elite capture

• Controlled by a small elite group
• In weak states, the politicians are protected by military  

Corruption

• Broad definition: impure
• Political corruption = use of office for private gain

• Embezzlement

• When foreign aid goes to private accounts instead of developmental projects

• Bribery
• Kickbacks

• Gives a contract to someone because of connections and not merit

• Nepotism/cronyism

What is the causal chain?

• Strong institutions (taxations) → strong state → economic development
• Corruption → economic development → strong institutions → strong state
• Corruption → economic development → strong institutions → storng state → liberal democracy?

Wednesday November 7: Terrorism

Libertarian

• A divided island
• Ethnic Groups in Shri Lanka: Tamil and Sinhalese

The making of a modern Sri Lanka

• Ceylon (Old word for Sri Lanka)
• Tamil and Sinhalese unity against British
• 1948 British colony → British dominion (more self-rule)
• 1956 Sinhala Only Act

• Sinhalese becomes the national language
• 30% minority (Tamil) feels left out

• 1972 Sri Lanka

• Breaks ties with Britain and became an independent nation

• Early 1970s: policy of standardization

• Give people more access to the University
• Universities taught in English and the Tamils actually knew more English because they were on the northern coast
• Sinhalese start taking Tamil’s spots in University

• Made the Tamil people feel like government was coming after them → heightened divisions

• Grievances on all sides

Tamil Tigers go to war

• Terrorist group
• Bombing Sinhalese
• Declared independence and administered their own laws
• Funded themselves with the drug trade…smuggling arms and trade markets
• Diversified portfolio around the world
• India tried to intervene and facilitate peace talks → lead to the Tamils fighting the Indians and assassinating the Indian Prime Minister and the Shri Lanka Prime Minister

• Not a lot of allies

How did Sri Lanka defeat the Tamil Tigers?

• 2005: Mahinda Rajapaksa: war president

• got serious about the war
• doubled the military budget
• stronger military campaigns
• more aggressive tactics
• no more cease fires

• Changing International Climate

• Difficult for terrorists
• Cracking down on countries that had terrorists (gained support)
• After September 11th 
• Less support for cease fires

• Leadership Decay

• Velupillai Prabhakaran

• His luck runneth out
• People just didn’t support him after 30 years and he was eventually killed

What do we learn from Tamil Tigers?

• It is possible to defeat terrorists
• Really helps to have state strength
• War is ugly → collateral damage that remains after the discourse, ongoing tensions
• Tensions do not disappear

American Anarchism

• Response to growing national government

• Ex. Forced education: national identity (pledge of allegiance)

• reading and writing for the new economy

• Ex. Police department becomes a real thing lol → More surveillance
• Ex. Taxation

• Individualist

• Freedom from government regulation

• Mutualist

• Order should occur spontaneously in response to peoples’ mutual interaction

• Communist

• Works on behalf of the oppressed masses

• Syndicalist

• Fighting to get people’s rights, more workers rights

• Huge time for critiquing government power

• In each of these strands there were extremes that would use terrorism

Haymarket Affair 1886 (Chicago)