Research framework and broader academic knowledge base
Serbia: documented application of the same framework
How can a state efficiently monitor and punish while providing poor health care, education, and protection?
State competence is not a single feature. The government can invest a lot in the police, supervision, tax control and registers because these systems directly help it to see opponents, collect money and carry out the order.
Health, education and social protection, however, require professional independence, accurate bad news, cooperation of many institutions and equal treatment of a large number of people. If employees hide problems in order not to be punished, such services are difficult to learn and improve. That is why strong coercion can exist with poor public service. Poor hospital or school results do not prove a deliberate political decision, it is necessary to compare money, personnel, powers and the ability of different parts.
Bad service does not prove that the authorities deliberately neglected it for supervision and punishment. It is necessary to compare money, people, tasks and results of different services.
Works supporting this answer, with their evidence type and an explanation of how they relate to the claim.
Development and verification of measurement methods
Hanson, J. K. i Sigman, R. (2021), „Leviathan’s Latent Dimensions: Measuring State Capacity for Comparative Political Research“, Journal of Politics 83(4): 1495–1510.
- Contribution to this answer
- Hanson and Sigman give an almost direct answer: state capability has different dimensions. The ability of the state to coerce and control is not the same as the ability of its administration to devise policies, regulate the economy, and provide public services so a strong apparatus of force does not prove that the rest of the state is equally capable.
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Pepinsky, T. B., Pierskalla, J. H. i Sacks, A. (2017), „Bureaucracy and Service Delivery“, Annual Review of Political Science 20: 249–268.
- Contribution to this answer
- It shows how much the provision of health, education and other services depends on what is going on deep in the bureaucracy on the organization, the local context and the relationship of officials with citizens. These are completely different capacities than the ability of the state to find, supervise or punish someone.
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Dahlström, C. i Lapuente, V. (2022), „Comparative Bureaucratic Politics“, Annual Review of Political Science 25: 43–63.
- Contribution to this answer
- Dahlstrm and Lapuente show that the way in which bureaucracy is made affects the economic development, corruption and quality of services. A politically very controlled apparatus therefore does not have to be an apparatus that is best organized for professional solving of citizens’ problems.
Explain how the system works
Wallace, J. (2022), Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts: Information, Ideology, and Authoritarianism in China, Oxford University Press.
- Contribution to this answer
- Wallace in China shows the paradox of a system that measures and controls its own state very much: numerical goals help the top to see and direct a huge administration, but at the same time encourage lower levels to “play” indicators and produce data that looks better than reality. The state can therefore have a lot of information and control, and yet have serious blind spots right where it needs accurate bad news.
comparing several countries or cases
Greitens, S. C. (2016), Dictators and Their Secret Police: Coercive Institutions and State Violence, Cambridge University Press.
- Contribution to this answer
- Greitens shows that the apparatus of coercion is being built towards a special political goal to protect the regime from rebellion and coup. Therefore, it is not unusual for the state to invest enormous organizational capacity in services that control and control people, without developing this ability in the same degree in schools, hospitals or social services.
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