Authority

Waning State Authority?

Current writing on governance often asserts that the authority of the state is declining. This could mean at least three things. First, states may be increasingly less able to rely on authority as a key method for exerting social control. This may be the result of individual crises of legitimacy or a more general trend associated with globalization or broad cultural changes that have undermined the normative foundations of hierarchical authority relationships. In this case, a loss of authority suggests that states are increasingly governing in networks with voluntary and private bodies either as a means of increasing legitimacy or to mitigate the costs associated with having to rely on less efficient forms of securing compliance. Second, decreasing state authority could refer to a narrowing scope for the exercise of authority. In this case, it may not be that states are less able to rely on authority for social control but, rather, [Page 42]that normative changes have led to a redefinition of the range of areas where that control applies. Thus, new forms of governance may emerge as states seek to exercise influence in areas where they previously commanded obedience. Third, a loss of state authority could mean that authority has shifted to other levels. In response to economic, political, and normative changes, new governance forms may emerge as state authority is transferred upward to the supranational level, downward to the subnational level, or outward to the private realm. This could represent a voluntary delegation of authority (with the implication that states could take authority back), or an involuntary loss to bodies at other levels that are either actively “poaching” on state authority or merely willing and able to fill in for a retreating state.

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