Susan Strange Decline Of The State

Susan Strange published a book titled: The Retreat of the State. In her book, Strange took on a comprehensive concept about the dynamics of both power and politics, arguing that there is a declining authority of states. While Strange’s argument explores some of the causes that lie behind the decline of the state, Robert Gilpin counter-argues in his book, Global Political Economy, that today, more than ever before, the policies of the states are needed to maintain the affairs of the powerful economic and technological forces. Focusing on these arguments, this paper explores the concept of power and politics, arguing that the powerful economic and technological forces brought by globalization, and the rise of non-state authorities has not limited …show more content…
This included market reformation, economic regulations, privatization, and protection of public goods. While these themes may not have been the main intentions for these theories, philosophers such as Marx touched on the idea of state, but from a different perspective than the rest of the economists. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx analyzed class relations and the development of capitalism, nevertheless, he made an interesting claim that “the state is the tool of the dominant class.” In other words, the ruling class detects what happens in a state and what decisions it makes. While he sees communism as the ultimate end of the class struggle between the proletariats and the bourgeois, he advises that the state (controlled by the ruling class) should be doing whatever it takes to make the working class happy and to keep them from rebelling (Dallas Lecture). This is achieved by creating a “welfare state” in which the government is “responsible for the economic and social wellbeing of its citizens and has policies to provide health care services, money for people without jobs, etc.” (Miriam …show more content…
For the two, the role of the state is to protect the market; what Smith calls the “watchman state.” While it may be tempting to have a state regulated market, government best serves the nation by enforcing societal norm that allows for free trade and compensation for laborers. For Friedman, the simple reason for this is that the state often do a haphazard job in its social projects. Classic examples of this are the housing system and tax system. While the state tries to create welfare system for low-income families, it often end up lacking the proper planning and execution, which ends up creating more harm than good for the low-income