1.1 Overview

In this course we explore the significance of the state as a governing authority. Encounters with the state explores the significance of political order in everyday life, while Making and remaking the state considers the processes through which states are made and remade. Legitimising the state focuses on one critical issue in the making of political order: the question of legitimacy. Repairing the state examines how one particular state and its authority have been repaired – using the example of Northern Ireland to examine contested views of the state and its legitimacy.