SYC 503E - Formation of the Modern State

Course Objectives

This course aims to introduce fundamental theoretical and critical frameworks recognized in the social sciences with an interdisciplinary perspective on the historical formation and ongoing transformation of the modern state, and to provide a critical perspective on the socio-historical construction processes of states.

Course Description

This course examines the formation, institutionalization and transformation of the modern state in a period covering from the antiquity to the neoliberal capitalism. The course analyzes the formation of the state through concepts such as "power", “authority”, “violence”, “representation”, “oppression”, “bureaucracy”, “military”, “class”, "legitimacy", “people”,
“revolution”, “nation”, “inequality”, “ethnicity” and "gender". The complex bureaucratic and legal institutionalization of the "modern sThis course examines the formation, institutionalization and transformation of the modern state in a period covering from the antiquity to the neoliberal capitalism. The course analyzes the formation of the state through concepts such as "power", “authority”, “violence”, “representation”, “oppression”, “bureaucracy”, “military”, “class”, "legitimacy", “people”,
“revolution”, “nation”, “inequality”, “ethnicity” and "gender". The complex bureaucratic and legal institutionalization of the "modern state" is discussed by various critical approaches from an interdisciplinary perspective. The course readings are mainly selected from
sociology, anthropology, political science disciplines including both classical readings/theories on state and contemporary analyses on the transformations of the state.tate" is discussed by various critical approaches from an interdisciplinary perspective. The course readings are mainly selected from
sociology, anthropology, political science and anthropology disciplines including both classical readings/theories on state and contemporary analyses on the transformations of the state.