Research On Joel S. Migdal's State Capacity Theory

The capacity building of a modern state is the foundation for the modernization of state governance and the core issue of contemporary state theory research.Joel S.Migdal,a famous contemporary political scientist,studied the issue of state capacity from the perspective of the interaction between the state and society,and formed a unique state capacity theory,which made an outstanding contribution to the theoretical research of contemporary state capacity.On the basis of criticizing Weber's concept of nation state,he extended the concept of state to the combination of state idea and state practice.In his view,state capacity mainly includes state capacity of infiltration,absorption,mobilization and distribution.In terms of the relationship between state and society,Migdal beyond the social debate between the center and the national centralism.He described the relationship between the state and society that affects the state capacity as the "state in society",which broke the static and one-way causal comparison and made it possible to study the capacity of the state from a dynamic and process perspective.In terms of the influence mechanism of state capacity,Migdal believes that state capacity is not only restricted by social structure,but also exists tension between different levels of institutions within a country.He summarized the interactive relationship between the state and society in the process of competing for social control ability into four types: the complete transformation of state and society,the state absorbing society,the society absorbing country,and the complete separation of state and society.On the basis of the theory of historical institutionalism,Migdal attributed the differences in state capacity among developing countries to the path dependence of social control fragmentation and the different choices of key points in the process of nation-building,and believed that "weak countries" could avoid national separationthrough the "naturalization of the state ",such as the enactment of laws,the holding of public ceremonies and the construction of public space.He has injected a new research perspective into the development of the theory of state capacity and produced a resonance in the academic field,which has certain reference value for China's modernization drive of national governance.However,he ignored the influence of political system,national attribute and other factors on state capacity,which caused some controversy on his theory.