State Formation and Contested Political Orders

This class will give students a look into the murky and ambivalent relationship between violence and political order, from the historical origins of the state to the violent breakdown of political order today. Most theories of political order begin with the perspective that state institutions set limits on the legitimate use of violence and so control the violent tendencies of an anarchic society. Yet state building is itself a deeply violent process. Moreover the state continues to be a prolific user of violence. Aside from the obvious case of war between states, both democratic and authoritarian states engage in varying levels of everyday violence. In some cases, this violence is perceived as legitimate, as in the use of imprisonment as a punishment for criminal activity. In other cases, states transgress norms of legitimate violence, engaging in activities such as torture, sexual violence, and even ethnic cleansing. This course will cover topics including state building, torture, civil war, and crime and punishment. We will read work from political science, political economy, political sociology and political theory. This is a reading intensive seminar.