Chasing the Idea of Free Market in the International Political Sphere

One of the fundamental questions in political science, political theory and political philosophy is that of the state. Why is there a state? What is its base? What is its justification? The state remains a stubborn institution which refuses to melt away, and people who are inquiring about it are forced to explain it because they are unable to do away with it, which is the secret philosophical and theoretical desire of many students of politics. Most of the political thinkers have been content to explain why the state is there through various contrivances, the most famous of the modern period being that of the ‘social contract’. The other explanation is that it is an exertion of the powerful to extend their domain, in return for the obedience of the poor and the weak. The thesis of Avidit Acharya and Alexander Lee is another variation of the why and how of states. They start out with the argument that states are, following their economic paradigm, monopolistic enterprises with the sole intent of maximizing tax revenue or profits, and competition is excluded through international treaties demarcating borders. Like firms dividing markets and marking boundaries to monopolize markets, states do the same in cooperation with other states. Avidit Acharya and Alexander Lee are offering a more contemporary mode of talking about the state in market terms and through diagrammatic mode. Had they offered a pure political model without reference to history, they might have established an interesting if unviable theory. But they try to square the proverbial circle through historical evidence, and the strain shows.