Week 9 BACC100

Week 9 BACC100

Political Economics

Strong VS. Weak States

What is a STATE?

a nation or territory considered as an organized political community under one government. 

Elite Theory

is a theory of the state that seeks to describe and explain power relationships in modern society.  

There are two distinction of state in terms of its strength in political economy: The Weak state and the Strong states.

Weak States

are not intrinsically weak, or weak because of geography or colonialism; they are weak because they supply lesser or less-than-adequate quantities of political goods, or poorer-quality political goods, or both.

Strong States

adhering to sensible macroeconomic policies, including openness to international trade, developing a regulatory environment that stimulates economic growth and keeps inflation low, and encouraging foreign and domestic investment. 

Both state changes the society and create a huge impact in the quality of life, education and social status of the citizen. Weak and strong state can be created by the will and the actions of the government because of the power which is concentrated in the Judiciary, Legislative and Executive branch of the government as explained in Elite theory.

Elite Theory opposing Pluralism

Elite theory opposes pluralism (more than one system of power), a tradition that emphasized how multiple major social groups and interests have influence upon and various forms of representation within more powerful sets of rulers, contributing to decently representative political outcomes that reflect the collective needs of a society.

The View of Society

As mention in the 1st week, Economics is not all about numbers or money, it’s all about what the society and the individual’s want and need. A strong state creates more wants, needs, and it can satisfy both. Look at our society. A high number of Filipinos are finding more entertainment in online activities than Filipinos 10 years ago. Every year phones models are replace in favor of new and faster technology. Each satisfaction we get generates a new kind of want. Tech development and upbringing the lives of the society and many more creates generate progress. 

The View of Society

However, it is very apparent that there is a concentration of income to a small number of people. This is why our tax system is progressive, meaning if you have a higher income you will be taxed much higher this however was not enough to combat uneven Income. The TRAIN Law was implemented in January 1, 2018 to address this issue. In the TRAIN Law, low income earners does not have an income tax and higher earners were taxed higher that it was before 2018. Train Law also affected many tax from goods. The Train Law helped fund the Build Build Build Program of the Government.  

THANK YOU!!

BRIAN SHANE M. CORTES, MBA