Strength of the State

In Joel Migdal’s work Strong Societies and Weak States: State-Society Relations and State Capabilities in the Third World he discusses the reasons why most Third World countries have failed to become strong states. He expresses the importance of colonial backgrounds and influences from former parent countries. These states existed primarily to provide for the needs of the 18^th and 19^th parent states’ economies, thus their local financial and social well-being was not a crucial concern to imperialists thousands of miles away. How, then, can a state with such a background move forward to effectively govern its varied peoples?

The imperialists’ lack of foresight in most of the nations they occupied led to strong internal divisions, which have complicated and prevented much state development. They did not concern themselves with negotiating between local ethnic or tribal groups. These groups, they did not understand, are vital to the maintenance of state control beyond the key cities. As Migdal points out, “strong Third World societies, then, are not mere putty to be molded by states with sufficient technical resources, managerial abilities, and committed personnel” (36). Such a statement is proven not only in colonial society, but also in today’s world. When one considers the situation in Iraq, such a statement is especially true. A strong state, Midgal would contend, requires that its leaders understand and work with the various minority groups within its borders. He states that as Third World countries are noticeably more ethnically diverse than First World countries.

The best way for leaders to do so is to construct political agencies with the power to make large scale strategic choices affecting all of the separate groups in the country. These agencies would need to be far reaching and capable of understanding the multitude of interests in regions that may be far from the seat of government. Only through these can a government hope to simultaneously consolidate and expand its power to effectively maintain central social and political control.