The State as a Total System

• In Event: Rethinking Sovereignty

Abstract

While it is common to refer to states as unitary rational actors, it is often not clear from the literature what the extent of this unity is. When scholars do explicitly define states they often make them synonymous with governments, dropping territories and populations out of the definition. In this paper I argue against the identification of states with governments to argue that states are total systems which consist of the entire mass of organic and inorganic matter within a territorial unit. In this sense, populations and infrastructure such as roads, buildings, powerlines, cables, and pipes are conceptualized as parts of the state, rather than merely tools of the state. This conception opens up a broad swath of important state behaviors which cannot be accounted for by traditional assumptions in IR theory such as settler colonialism and total war. In both cases, populations outside of government form the primary appendages facilitating state action. The state as a total system illuminates the importance of home fronts during conflict, revealing populations and infrastructure as both the source and target of state power and violence, and dissolving the traditional distinction between the public and private spheres. The Westward Expansion of the United States, Japanese imperialism in East Asia, and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict are used as case studies.

Author

• Christian L. Godwin, The Ohio State University