In 1947 the State of Pakistan
came into existence. Reading about what makes a state, a concerned citizen
cannot help but compare. Functionally, one ponders over whether the state has
been able to fulfill the tasks, whatever they might be. Alternatively one may
see if the state of Pakistan has the organizational capacities that secure its
public and international acceptance as a state.
A state must be
sovereign. Does Pakistan boast Hobbesian sovereignty? In an era where the head
of the global superpower has decried Westphalia as history and drone strikes
breach Pakistan's borders and the successive governments plunge the state
further and further into debt, is Pakistan sovereign?
Pakistan, although a
country that boasts diversity, is not pluralistic. Every person is involved in
the persecution of another and the vast majority is by some definitions
persecuted or discriminated against minority. Pakistan may have inherited a
Leviathan from colonial raj, but can the modern state be considered a
Leviathan, when it does not control all parts of even its largest metropolis?
Patriarchal, maybe. The best fit, in light of the reading, might be the
capitalist state. Yet the Marxist view has its own limitations.
With all its intrusions
in society and the economy, Pakistan is not minimal. But it is also not
totalitarian; even dictators in this country have needed legitimization through referendums and parliaments and have suffered open opposition and criticism.
With one ethnicity a rival to the other, collectivized we are not, perhaps a
state.
Overall, this reading was the
most interesting to me out of all I have read in this course so far.
1 comment:
Interesting comments Faseeh. I agree that Pakistan is neither a minimal nor a maximal (i.e. totalitarian) state. Instead it is somewhere in between. Just as the country itself is developing, so too is the state, its institutions, and how it interacts with foreign countries. But what type of state should Pakistan be? The answer to this question will ultimately be determined by our generation. I'm hopeful for a better tomorrow.
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