The Inevitability of State Formation and Its Prevention

Category
Topic
Words
409 (1 page)
Downloads
23
Download for Free
Important: This sample is for inspiration and reference only
No time to compare samples?
Hire a Writer

✓Full confidentiality ✓No hidden charges ✓No plagiarism

A ‘state’ is socio-geo-political entity with a government which exercises control over all spheres of life. State is a construct thus fluid in nature. The formation of ‘state’ is still a polemical issue, various historians have tried to provide logic to this answer in their own ways. This even leads to question- whether the emergence of state inevitable, was there any possibility to prevent it?

As pointed out by H.J.M. Claessen, “this process had a long gestation period”. In his article ‘Before Early State and After’, he describes how he to studied few ‘non-literate principalities’ or ‘primitive states’ to unroot the undiscovered causes behind emergence of state. Later he was joined by Peter Skalnik in this study and they came up with a [PG-6] new term ‘Early State’, which they thought was more suitable for such emerging societies. They came across some common points like – Territory, Sovereignty, Stratification, Functionaries [which were common in almost all the societies]. [PG-6], broadly categorised rise of early state as 3 tier process – Inchoate, typical and transitional, which Bbrings about formation of ‘mature state’. This categorisation was based on power exercised- Consensual [as in chiefdoms] or Coercive [as in state]. According to Claessen and Skalnik, 5 factors were responsible for the same- Demographic factors, War-conquest, Production process and surplus, State’s ideology and influencing of already existing states. [PG-11] Claessen came up with Complex Interaction Model [CIM] which includes- ‘societal format’ and 2 other nuances of – ideology and control of economy.

On the other hand, 19 century British historians name the kind of state which existed in Asian societies as ‘Oriental Despotism’ where a ruler has all the power and society was ‘unchanging and uniform’. A similar term ‘Asiatic Mode of Production’ is used by Marxist scholars to describe Asian societies where whole lad was owned by king [who extracted taxes], there were no markets and society was self-sufficient, But on contrary, in Indian states people had their own property [example of grihapati] and peasant were free to migrate to another place if they found existing authority as oppressive and tribute/taxes as unbearable and India had vibrant market centres too. As Romila Thapar puts it “the nature of Asian state was easier process of state formation, this included conquest theory [by Aryans] and internal stratification theory.” [PF-656] She also focuses on Vedic texts like Rigveda to draw reference of Bharata tribe who were in transitional phase to monarchical system, where “Kuru, Panchala were typical”.

You can receive your plagiarism free paper on any topic in 3 hours!

*minimum deadline

Cite this Essay

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below

Copy to Clipboard
The Inevitability of State Formation and Its Prevention. (2021, February 10). WritingBros. Retrieved March 28, 2024, from https://writingbros.com/essay-examples/the-inevitability-of-state-formation-and-its-prevention/
“The Inevitability of State Formation and Its Prevention.” WritingBros, 10 Feb. 2021, writingbros.com/essay-examples/the-inevitability-of-state-formation-and-its-prevention/
The Inevitability of State Formation and Its Prevention. [online]. Available at: <https://writingbros.com/essay-examples/the-inevitability-of-state-formation-and-its-prevention/> [Accessed 28 Mar. 2024].
The Inevitability of State Formation and Its Prevention [Internet]. WritingBros. 2021 Feb 10 [cited 2024 Mar 28]. Available from: https://writingbros.com/essay-examples/the-inevitability-of-state-formation-and-its-prevention/
Copy to Clipboard

Need writing help?

You can always rely on us no matter what type of paper you need

Order My Paper

*No hidden charges

/