STATE FORMATION AS ORGANIZED CRIME

Charles Tilly draws a similarity between organized crimes with practices of “protection” and state making. He further made a direct link between war making and state making; he further argued that states do organized crimes in a larger scale. He however went ahead to explain how power holders’ persiut war no matter what it would take them. They tend to extract resources from the people they control due to the power they had over them. These power holders even go further to borrow money just to make this war a success.  

He also notes how governments always had a collection of aggressive groups to who are always ready to stand in for wars when it was necessary. Bandits became troops; pirates became sailors. As soon as their services are no longer needed, these groups are then considered illegal which makes it look like they were being used for these power hungry leaders. The goal of power holders was to hold on to their turf—and, if need be, expand it. He also states that, the building up of war-making capacity likewise increased the capacity to extract. He says that, the very activity of extraction, if successful, entailed the elimination, neutralization, or cooptation of the great lord’s local rivals; thus, it led to state making

Weber on the other hand rationalization of the state, he believes that, state as "a compulsory association which organizes domination. He explains that the state has gained control over the use of force. This is mostly to achieve their desires which are always selfish. He believed that though violence is necessary for a state, it does not make it develop. Rather what he thought would make the state develop and what would make an individual develop is to acquire the necessary technical and administrative skill in order to run the machines and run the corporation. He also explains that, states had some functions they fulfill, which include: the protection of personal safety and order, the protection of rights, the enactment of law and the armed protection against outside forces.

How Charles Tilly’s and Weber’s rationalization relates, is that they both looked at how to make a state and what is needed for that to be done. Tilly believes in those power holders will do whatever it takes to keep and protect their power by using people who are always ready to be used for such activity. Weber also thinks that violence is not needed for development rather an individual needs to acquire skills for development for him and the nation.  However at the end they both believe that, these governments or power holders, make all the decisions they make for their own benefits and to satisfy their selfish interest.