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These four points must be complemented by
understanding that the state is defined in rela-
tion to two other spheres of modern life, the
market(or economic activity) andcivil soci-
ety. The functions of the state reflect the need
to facilitateeconomic growththat generates
the tax base to support astate apparatus
(Tilly, 1990a), the provision ofinfrastruc-
tureand other goods to maintain a population
that can serve as a workforce, the maintenance
of internal order, and the capacity to defend
the population from outside aggression
(Mann, 1984a). The need and ability to carry
out these functions constantly varies; hence
the geographical variety of states and the elu-
siveness of a precise definition.
One approach has been to show how states
have changed over time, which often falls
into the developmentalist trap of assuming
that states that came into existence as a result
of twentieth-centurydecolonizationcan and
should take on the same form and function as
the established European states that imposed
their colonial subjugation. Alternatively, a
structural approach defines a geographical
variation in the form of the state, and differ-
ential ability to undertake the standard func-
tions, as a product of the state’s position
within the hierarchy of the capitalist world-
economy (Flint and Taylor, 2007 [1985]).
States in the wealthy core of the world-
economy have the ability to provide for most
of their population and so to maintain their
cohesion and strength. States in the impover-
ished periphery face internal challenges to
their legitimacy. In the former, the state can
maintain its authority through creating polit-
ical consensus regarding its legitimacy. In the
latter, coercive power and unstable internal
politics are more common.
The geographical variation in the form of
the state can be conceptualized as differences
in the manner by which the state interacts with
the market and civil society.feminist geog-
raphersdiscourage an understanding of the
three spheres as separate. Instead, ‘themarket
andcivil societyinvolve actors and processes
that help constitute the state; the procedures
and actors of the state similarly influence
the market and civil society’ (Fincher, 2004,
p. 50). The important conclusions are that the
state is multi-faceted and contested. The state
is manifest in the actions of thepolice, in the
prosaic sense of imposing guidelines and laws
over the way people can act (e.g. seat-belt
laws and smoking regulations: Painter, 2004),
taxation and the military. The relative power
and efficacy of these and other manifestationsis a product of a politics between social groups
who seek to control or influence the institu-
tions of the state for their own interests. In
terms of coercive power, the control of the
military and police may be contested between
class fractionsor ethnic groups (seeethni-
city). The size and direction ofredistributive
programmes is the product of conflicts
between the owners of capital who seek to
limit the state’s taxation of their wealth and
disadvantaged groups seeking security from
the vagaries of capitalist economies. Of course,
this is not a simple equation, as capital
requires enough state involvement to allow
forsocial reproduction (via schools, hos-
pitals and housing subsidies) as well as trans-
port infrastructure and some regulation of
economic activity. Feminist geographers high-
light that such politics entwine the ‘private’
spaces of the household, the traditional site
of unpaid women’s work, with the male-
dominated ‘public’ sphere in such a way that
they cannot be considered a dualism (seepri-
vate and public spheres).
ideologyis a central component of main-
taining states. The state is a normative ideo-
logical construction in both a general and
particular sense. First, the belief that states
are legitimate universal institutions with a
‘right’ to wield power over individuals is,
generally, unchallenged. Second, the history
of particular states is constructed to give them
a ‘naturalness’ and historical permanency that
is a political fiction (Krishna, 1994). The
Marxist scholar Antonio Gramsci also points
out that the politics within states results in a
ruling class that is able to dominate through
constructing an ideological consensus around
its ‘right’ to rule and a perceived value for the
whole population of decisions that greatly
benefit a small elite, thus minimizing the need
for coercive power (seehegemony).
The state comprises institutions at various
scaleslinking central and local government.
The precise form varies across space and time,
but the central government can uselocal
states,withtheirsense of connectivity to a
local population, as means to legitimate itself.
On the other hand, local states may challenge
the authority of the central state if it is believed
that the latter fails to serve local needs (see
regionalism: Kirby, 1993). globalization
andneo-liberalismhave put greater respon-
sibility on local governments to carry out state
functions and generate their own revenue.
New forms of local state governanceare
being identified that attempt to attract global
investment by creating entrepreneurial localGregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_S Final Proof page 723 1.4.2009 3:23pmSTATE