32515

SoSe 13: Nation, State, and Market. Legitimacy and the Formation of Public Goods

Boris Vormann

Kommentar

In the context of recent eruptions in the global financial architecture, crises related to processes of rapid urbanization, infrastructure breakdowns caused by lack of maintenance and/or environmental catastrophes, crises in educational systems, and grey-zone conflicts such as terrorism and asymmetric warfare, the role of the state in intervening in 'deregulated' markets, procuring public goods, and providing emergency relief has come under new scrutiny, both in public discourses and in analyses in the social sciences. What lies at the core of these diverse phenomena - which, at first glance, seem to have little in common - is a reassessment of the relation between market, society, and state. Who finances public goods such as security? Is education a public good? Where does the responsibility for building public spaces and infrastructure lie? In short: Which role is the state to play in processes that have gained urgency precisely because of the widespread belief that states had to restrict their role to securing private property rights, leveling the playing field for economic actors, and ensuring the human security of its populations? This course examines the changing relations between nation, state, and market on the North American continent. It seeks to interpret the nation-state as a foil for collective identities as well as a legitimacy and accountability mechanism for the provision of public goods.In the first half of the semester the main focus rests on an analysis of differentforms of nationalismin the United States, Canada, and Québec.This section takes into consideration the different nation-building processes to explain variation in social understandings of the public good and of the state's responsibilities vis-à-vis its population.From a more contemporary perspective the second half of the term is concerned withthe procurement of different forms of public goods. The central questions posed in this segment pertain to the occurrence ofmarket failures in the provision of security, the construction and maintenance of infrastructure, and in the field of education. Schließen