Context construction through competition: the prerogative of public power, intermediary institutions, and the expansion of statehood through competition

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between the evolution of statehood and competition in the European context. To begin with, a particular take on the evolution of modern political power in the state form in Europe is developed. Against this background, the article re-constructs how the institutionalisation of competition as a specific type of policy tool has been used by emerging modern states to establish their authority vis-à-vis competing claims to public authority in society. The article, furthermore, engages in an examination of (neo-) corporatist and governance based attempts both to curb and to expand the use of competition as a tool for organising social processes, and the implications of these attempts for the state of statehood.

Where Does Competition Come From? The role of organization

“…Institutions that support globalization in that way render it easier to construct all elements of competition – actors, relationships, scarcity and desire. As a consequence, states compete for ‘talent’ or ‘innovative capability’ or ‘ease of doing business’ (Porter, 1990), and they develop competition strategies – to be attractive to multinational companies, for example (Kjaer, 2015).…”

“…Although competition has long been a central concept in the design of economic markets and democratic systems (Schumpeter, 1942), it has recently become popular as a tool to govern organizations more broadly. Under the guise of ‘marketization’, governments let several providers compete in order to provide a wide range of products and services – from garbage collection to schooling, healthcare, elder care and military services (Hood & Dixon, 2015; Kjaer, 2015; Singer, 2003). The hope is that competition will improve the performance of individuals and organizations (Hayek, 1978; Le Grand, 2009; Porter, 1990).…”

The Transnational Constitution of Europe's Social Market Economies: A Question of Constitutional Imbalances?

“…Societal corporatism, characterized by industrial self‐organization, on the other hand, was seen as a concomitant element of democratic post‐WWII welfare societies (Schmitter, , p. 102ff). But, rather than an encroachment of state‐based public power into society, the interwar turn to corporatism implied a (re‐)privatization of public power and an increased reliance on paternalistic modes of societal organization which had only been superficially suppressed by the newly constituted states (Kjaer, ; Neumann, ,, ).…”

“…Societal corporatism, characterized by industrial self-organization, on the other hand, was seen as a concomitant element of democratic post-WWII welfare societies (Schmitter, 1974, p. 102ff). But, rather than an encroachment of state-based public power into society, the interwar turn to corporatism implied a (re-)privatization of public power and an increased reliance on paternalistic modes of societal organization which had only been superficially suppressed by the newly constituted states (Kjaer, 2015;Neumann, 1930aNeumann, ,1930bNeumann, , 1930c. This paternalist set-up was also mirrored in the welfare policy vis-à-vis employees, which throughout the interwar period, to a large extent, remained an internal dimension of firm organization, with large-scale conglomerates engaged in providing housing, consumer goods through company stores, health schemes, and so forth (Hilger, 1998).…”

Facilitating transfers: regulatory governance frameworks as ‘rites of passage’

“…A defining, maybe the most defining, feature of the history of modern states in Europe and beyond was the sustained attempt of the emerging political centres to eradicate localistic forms of ordering in order to establish singular state-centric societies capable of withstanding centrifugal forces (Neumann, [1933(Neumann, [ ] 1996. The central focus of the emerging modern states was to restructure society in their own image through the breakdown or the domestication of alternative sources of authority and power, as manifested in, for example, clans, religious movements, ethnic communities, guilds, and nobility-based networks (Kjaer, 2015a). In most of Western Europe, this Hegelian codification of society in its entirety, through the state, which aimed to turn "peasants into Frenchmen" (Weber, 1976), did, however, not materialise "on the ground" before in the first half of the twentieth century.…”