The Rise of the State

States are created through cooperation to achieve goals that benefit the society, such as building irrigation projects or providing public safety

Integrative theories

States are created to protect territory but quickly become tools for warriors to elevate themselves into kings and conquer and exploit weaker groups

Coercive theories

In these states, it may be more difficult for the central government to enforce its power because local elites regional governments have autonomy (example: feudal Europe, India)

Decentralized States

States where the central government has great power and control. Usually have a king or emperor and a strong bureaucracy (example: China)

Centralized States

Sir Stamford Raffles, British governor of the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) in the early 1800s

"Here [in Indonesia] I am the advocate of despotism. The strong arm of power is necessary to bring men together, and to concentrate them into societies … [Indonesia] is, in great measure, peopled by innumerable petty tribes, subject to no general government … At present people are as wandering in their habits as the birds of the air, and until they are congregated and organized under something like authority, nothing can be done with them."

​Think-Pair-Share: Are states inherently coercive?