Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993 TAG: 9303250577
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-15 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOSHUA B. RUBONGOYA
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
POWER PLAY
THE UNEQUIVOCAL power of the state has been the overriding characteristic of human history since the mid-18th century. In fact, the difference between the state and civil society, as sociologist Max Weber put it, has always been that the state has a "monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory."The textbook distinction between civil society and the state is that the latter has the power to make binding decisions. The state has historically used force to enforce law and order at home and in the international system. But the ongoing Waco, Texas, standoff and the recent bombing of the World Trade Center in New York raise several questions regarding the power of the state.
First, the now-jailed Palestinian suspect in the Trade Center bombing, Mohammed Salameh, has been living in the United States illegally for eight years, so it seems legitimate to question the power of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in tracking down lawbreakers and applying the law.
Let us revisit the Waco, Texas, debacle. A small cult, the Branch Davidians, has put the authority and legitimacy of our state in the balance, questioning and challenging the core of state power. The use of physical force is no longer the monopoly of the state.
Although we might question whether Davidian use of force is legitimate, the point is moot considering the cult refuses to recognize the legitimacy of state power, opting instead to appeal to a so-called higher power. And in the name of that power, it has carved out its own political if not theological borders within the larger U.S. territory.
It has defended this pseudo state for more than two weeks now. For this size group to hold U.S. law at bay for as long as it has would have been quite difficult 50 years ago. For back then, sovereignty - the power to make binding decisions - was very powerful.
Nonetheless, a weakening nation-state is not just a U.S. phenomenon. It is a worldwide process. The power of the nation-state is being questioned and in some countries has ceased to exist all together.
To suggest that there is such a thing as power to make binding decisions in Somalia or in former Yugoslavia is to misconstrue the basic characteristics of sovereignty. Both cases suffer from problems of jurisdiction and dominion.
Canada and Great Britain hang on tenuously to their traditional borders as secessionist forces threaten to dismember the territorial integrity of Her Majesty's "empire."
The struggles against the Soviet presidency today point toward a weak political system in contrast to what had been one of the strongest states in the world.
The world's largest democracy, India, has a weak claim to the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within its territory.
And despite the strong arm of Chinese communism, Tiananmen Square is a startling reminder of the people's power to question the power of a communist state.
These conflicts are not new, you might be saying to yourself. The added factor in the weakness-of-the-state thesis is that today the traditional conflicts are shored up by new and remarkable technological innovations.
The fax machine was a major weapon in piercing the Chinese state as students from without communicated with those from within - state power was effectively challenged. These same innovations now are being used to print counterfeit passports and foreign currencies. All these leave the state bankrupt of the power to make decisions binding on its subjects.
Furthermore, increasing global economic interdependence has undercut state powers of fiscal planning and control. Multinational organizations now control the flow of money from country to country, evading tax laws and taking advantage of exchange and interest rates.
As the survival of stable democracies hangs in the balance, the state must strive to keep ahead of technological and other structural forms of progress to avoid a degeneration from civil order to anarchy. The same technologies used to destabilize society can be used to stabilize it. The trick is, how to do it without instituting a police state.
Joshua B. Rubongoya is assistant professor of political science at Roanoke College.