Poli Sci

Throughout history both the state and nation played major roles in most of history’s political outcomes, but the most important building block of all was the market. Instances can be seen all throughout history, some of the most well-known cases being the Enclosure Movement and the Industrial Revolution. Most scholars believe that States came first as it is a natural desire for man to be a social individual and as a result establish a state which is an organization that has a "monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory," which may include armed forces, civil service or police (Weber). After the state, man started to have needs and requirements, consequently forming the market. And finally the nation arose, bearing in mind as how the nation has a “named human population sharing a historic territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for all members” (Weber). Therefore, in order to have a nation one must have an economy and state (Webber).

The market then advanced into its next stage, Industrialization. Each state has different outcomes as they begin to industrialize. The timing and speed of industrialization has a huge influence on the state itself. "The more backward a country's economy, the more likely was its industrialization to start discontinuously as a sudden great spurt proceeding at a relatively high rate of growth of manufacturing output”(Gerschenkron). Also industrialization has had a huge effect on political outcomes. The state has most of the control on the political outcome during the industrialization process (Gerschenkron).

After states were formed, man within the state started to have needs and requirements. The only way for these needs and requirements to be met was by a sovereign market. The barter system was used before the state was formed, but it was a very inefficient way of trade. For insistence, take trading cows for chickens; what if someone only wants one chicken for dinner but the cow he's going to be trading is worth ten chickens. He will have no choice but to trade for 10 chickens, however, if there was medium of exchange "money" then selling his cow for a "cash" value and then buy just one chicken. Also bartering requires a coincidence of wants. For example, man wants cow, you have cow, you want chicken and man has chicken, you then swap. This was all resolved with currency. The market logically comes after the state because it is the state’s “objectives…to specify the fundamental rules of competition and cooperation which will provide a structure of property rights…for maximizing the rents accruing to the ruler; two…to reduce transaction costs in order to foster maximum output of the society and, therefore, increase tax revenues accruing to the state” (North). The state is “…essential for economic growth…” (North).

The nation finally came, which a named human population sharing a historic territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for all members” (Webber). Therefore, in order to have a nation there must be a common economy, which means that the market was developed before the nation. However, how the nation develops depends fully on state.

Although the market had been in effect for quite some time, the enclosure movement helped it flourish. The Enclosure movement was “…enclosures of open fields and conversions of arable land to pasture during the early Tudor period in England” (Polanyi). Before the enclosure movement, the commons were everywhere; Peasants would often rent strips of land from the land lords and harvest off the landowners land. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries though, the movement to enclose and privatize these common areas accelerated greatly (Polanyi). Though the enclosure movement began in Britain; it also spread too many other European countries (Polanyi). According to Karl Polanyi, this movement started a new era. Landlords started fencing off their land in order to organize their land from other wealthy landowners. Soon enough, the peasants were forced to give up their shares of land to the wealthy landowners, making land a fictitious commodity because of these property rights. (Polanyi). This caused a massive urbanization because the impoverished peasants went into the city to look for jobs (Polanyi). The forcible displacement of the poor peasants was a direct consequence of the landowners seeking to maximize their profit at any expense (Polanyi).

The enclosure movement was spreading throughout Europe like a wildfire. Even though this new era caused many immense hardships and brought about rich futures for others, it was a great turning point in history. Since there were now fewer farmers to buy