War & The State

War and the Rise of the State, by Bruce D. Porter, covers ground that may not be new, but it is different ground than traditionally covered by modern academics with respect to the nature and relationship between war and the state. Porter's work shows that, contrary to the opinions held by the majority of hawks or doves, politics is merely war orchestrated in a different manner. The author is not occupied with the causes of war, but rather what wars cause. His argument contends that war is responsible for territorial consolidation and has represented through 500 years of history the single biggest force for increasing bureaucracy and expanding government. More insightful and of higher originality is his depiction of the simple truth that is the real foundation of the origin of the modern state and modern politics-throughout history it has been demonstrated that all societies must develop a means of controlling internal and/or external threats from the reality of man's inherent capability for violence.

Porter argues that the state may make war, but war makes the state. If war represents the ultimate chaos and destruction of society, it also represents the zenith of that same society's ability to unify. If the battlefield symbolizes disorganization and chaos, then the political machinery and state behind it are the apotheosis of organization and order-as glorified by the central government controlling the conflict, "A

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wage a war the central government becomes the most efficient and powerful machine of war-all geared to promote collective action for the good of the state. While the tragic legacy of war is the destruction of persons and property, the lasting legacy according to the author represents this great force of collective action that is organized still when war ends, "The legacies that do endure are the experience of the collective endeavor-newly forged channels of societal cooperation-and the organizational residues of war, those political institutions forged to make possible its waging. Since full-scale industrialized war cannot possibly be fought by militia forces or in any decentralized manner, it invariably leads to the concentration of immense power in a central government. That power, channeled through the deep grooves of societal cooperation etched by war, is a formidable engine of collective action" (192). Porter uses this analysis to conclude that the modern role of the state is only a byproduct of past warfare. He believes the mass state, the regulatory state and the welfare state are all the "offspring" of total warfare in the industrial era. The author provides a view of other authors who have written on the relation

Category: Literature - W