Introduction
Let us first define what state is before we proceed to the question. The term state may be used interchangeably with country. State is a self-governing political entity. It is a political association with effective sovereignty over a geographic area. These may be nation states or sub-nation states. To make the rules that govern the exercise of coercive violence for the people of the society in that territory, a state usually includes the set of institutions that claim the authority, though its status as a state often depends in part on being recognized by a number of other states as having internal and external sovereignty over it.
State in sociology is normally identified with these institutions: in Max Weber’s influential definition, it is that organization that has a “monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory,” by which may include the armed forces, civil service or state bureaucracy, courts and police. The polis and the rule of the state, policy making are closely related to politics. Particularly in Australia where we have traditionally expected them to fix out public ills, it is usually governments that people target when they want policy change. In areas such as wage fixing, dispute resolution, utilities, transport and creating fairness we have a long tradition of expecting state involvement in areas. Perhaps this is because of our history: we were set up by a government and didn’t have much private money. However, what happens when that traditional relationship changes, particularly with respect to public and social policies that affect us all.
What role should the state play in development policy?
There have been major shifts in ideology and implementation over the last two decades. We began to follow the USA and UK, starting in their early eighties, and market-based economic models tended to dominate all government policies. Were told that we cannot afford the social policies unless we get the economy right first, those of us interested in the good society, or at least a better society. In which changed the relationship between governments and their citizens, the results was an orgy of neo-liberal based shifts in most Anglophone centuries. This ended the post-war reforms of government which had seen a gradual growth in government services and activities, often referred to as the ‘welfare state’.
Of non-democratic movements such as fascism, this set of policies was the result of the pre-World war two growths. Disorders would create an environment ripe for totalitarian takeovers, and these had created fears that excess poverty. On the need for more government intervention, the response was the development of a consensus both to fulfill for growth and to offer services through the welfare state to create more equity, and presumably, order. The role of the state through continuity and change, to facilitate broad-based sustainable economic growth in managing the public sector and the required policy choices and diversification hinges on one of the most topical issues in development literature. A state is territory built by conquest in which one culture, one set of ideals and one set of laws have been imposed by force or threat over diverse nations by a civilian and military bureaucracy. Nicaragua, Spain, China, Sudan and USA are examples of state. With which it is sometimes confused, the concept of the state can be distinguished from the two related concepts, the concept of a form of government or regime, such as democracy or dictatorship, and the concept of a political system. The way in which the highest political offices are filled and their relationship to each other and to society, the form of government identifies only one aspect of the state. Such as the quality of its bureaucracy, it does not include other aspects of the state that may be very important in its everyday functioning.
Example is, two democratic states may be quite different if one has a capable, well-trained bureaucracy while the other does not. So to speak in general, the term state is refers to the instruments of political power. The role should the state play in the development policy is that the state is how something that configuration, attributes, condition, or information content. It is usually temporary, the state of a system, such as it changes with time and volatile example it will be lost or reset to some initial state if the system is switched off. Of all possible states, a state may be considered to be a point in some space. The role of the state is a dynamic process, thus it is directly linked to social traditions, economic changes and technological innovations. The Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution to take the history of Europe as an example brought about radical changes in the role of the state. Before that, the role of the state was essentially simple, whether it was a city state or an empire. The role of the state began to take on what might be called an international character by the end of World War I. To adjust to the new role of the state which originated in 19th century Europe, which during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire, and Imperial china and Japan were trying to do it. In today’s world, the role of the state is steadily becoming almost universal. By liberalization, privatization, globalization and freely floating national currencies thus the socio-economic goals are dominated.
By democratization, free and fair elections, good governance and the protection of human rights, the political role of the state is now dominated. The role of the state in the development policy is to promulgate, thus it makes changes to the policy which is invalid or not being acceptable by the people and thus they make policy and set on it. In protecting and serving local needs, state and local governments have an interest. Governments in some parts of the U.S have opened trade offices in foreign cities to promote business, trade and investments ties. For the state under the ideological thesis of scientific socialism, democratic centralism and centrally planned economies, after World War I, the Russian revolution created a new role. This was in sharp contrast to democratic liberalism, freedom of the press, free and fair elections and a free market economic system. State can also play an important role in the development of universal children’s saving policy because; state policy also influences wealth building. To help households build wealth, though playing a smaller role than the federal government, states also have enacted policies. This includes programs to promote homeownership or make homeownership affordable like down payment assistance, low-interest loans, programs to promote the growth and development of small business like technical assistance and programs to encourage higher education like student loans. States as “laboratory for democracy”. In this which the argument that states should serve as laboratories of democracy meaning is both common and intuitively appealing. Justice Brandeis in describing our federalist system famously wrote; “To stay experimentation in things, social and economic is a grave responsibility. With serious consequences to the nation, denial of the right to experiment may be fraught.
That a single courageous state may, it is one of the happy incidents of the federal system, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory, and try novel social and economics\ experiments without risk to the rest of the country. Written in1932, this formulation of the concept of the states as laboratories of democracy still resonates today. Varied state strategies continually test and winnow policy alternatives, thus which it provides the nation with well information about what works and what doesn’t. In addition to that, devolution means states now have much more responsibility for social policy. In the early 1980’s, beginning with the Reagan administration and continuing with the election of Republican majorities in both the U.S Senate and the House of Representative in 1994. Returning money and power and responsibility to the states, there has been a continuing trend of scaling back the federal government. For a range of social policy and family welfare issues, as a result, states now have more responsibility such as health care, income security, job training and social services. To help poor and low-income citizens via income-maintenance programs, asset-building policy should be an important part of this effort, as it provides an essential compliment to traditional efforts. It has always been a controversial issue in public debate, the role of the state in the economy. The role of the state in development policy continues to be central across the globe, in spite of the rhetoric from free market fundamentals post-1990. Particularly following World War II, this role has revolved from a long period of the dichotomy between the state and the market characterized by phases in which the state reigned supreme in the economy to periods where the market was supreme.
Why the state needed to intervene, thus in order to achieve desired economic outcomes. The market then reasserted its primacy with the conservative revolution of the 1980’s. These changing roles of the state have had an impact on developing countries. There are two main views of the role of the state in economic development emerge. First view relates to the facilitative role by which the state can play in a country’s economic development. The second view is associated with the directive interventionist role of the state. To centralize power in a durable way, the earliest forms of the state emerged whenever it become possible. Some political philosophers believe the origins of the state lie ultimately in the tribal culture which developed with human sentence. It has been driven by two views of what the state does, on the analysis of state failure. The service delivery view says the state’s role is to provide law and order, stable property rights, key public goods and welfare redistributions. The state contributes to economic under-performance, poverty and a series of governance failures in failing to provide these. On its core service-delivery tasks, these need to be addressed to focus the state. The second view puts the state in the context of social transformation: the dramatic transition developing countries are going through as traditional production systems collapse and a capitalist economy emerges. To accelerate the capitalist transition and the acquisition of new technologies, these states have intervened in property rights and devised rent-management systems. In this view state failure has been driven by the lack of institutional capacities and their incompatibility with pre-existing distributions of power.
The state is best approached as a legitimating social construct for holding the monopoly on violence in particular society. The role of all actors must be clearly defined, and the government is no exception in this regard, to achieve sustainable development as defined by the hopes and aspirations of the people. Successful implementation through knowledge and understanding and the benefits of having the role of the state define, promoted and communicated are supported for and ownership of the plan of action. To predictability and the certainty of outcomes, a clearly defined role for the state contributes. Entrepreneurs are more likely to rationally plan their risks and pay a smaller premium for the minimized risks. Necessary for decision making and reduces the potential for serious social conflict, a policy defining the role of government enhances the knowledge. To hold government accountable for its actions within an agreed framework, defining the role of government through policy widens and deepens democracy thus enhances the chances. Knowledge before hand allows the planning of ones life and facilitates decisions about investment. Defined roles of government through policy promote cohesiveness and a basis for the building of trust, judgment of actions and evaluation of performance. It is very important to think that a state should be a regulator more than a provider. The new world order is identifying some additional roles, either way, and there remain some traditional roles for government. To act greater than the speed of globalization to be effective in either role, one thing which is certain is that the state must improve its ability. Government must establish new and enduring relationships with the governed. The new openness and instant flow of information presents a challenge to the role of governments.
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