The Mechanisms of State Collapse (a Macro-Sociological Approach)

Abstract

The author makes use of the macro-sociological approach to describe state-collapse regularities. It is argued that the final point of a state’s collapse is the total delegitimization of power, and that elites’ conflict is a necessary condition for such a collapse as well as for successful mass rebellions. The elites’ conflict results from the lack of both material and symbolic resources caused by different reasons. The first reason is a geopolitical overextension, and the second was defined as elite “degradation” and elite overproduction. The author analyses some historical examples (the New Kingdom of Egypt and the Khmer Empire) to reveal how these patterns took shape in such cases. The grounds for various dynamics are caused by different elite positions relative to the government, that is, whether the elite is dependent on, or independent from, the government. This is linked to the type of economic relations, that is, the question of who owns the material means of production. If the state is not able to control them, it can not influence the elite. According to the author, the theory of military-technological determinism which states that types of weapon and the logic of state development are correlated can shed some light on the reasons of different elite positions.