Climbing the Status Ladder: An Experiment in Empirical Research of Relation between Status of a State in the System of International Relations and State Capacity

In the article, authors undertake an empirical study of the status of a state in the system of international relations and set themselves the task of studying the relation of this category with the category of state capacity. Within the framework of the study, it is proposed to understand the status position as the recognition of a given state’s importance (significance, influence, etc.) by the international system and other states. Based on this definition, the authors show that the status of a state (similar to the status of an individual in a community) is a product of construction by the others. It is noted that the status, which is recognized for a given state or for which the state is aspiring, is supported by material and non-material foundations and (or) resources, which at a particular point in time are considered by the international community as essential constituent elements of «power» («might», «strength») of a state. In the academic literature «governance» is listed among these factors (or «assets»). Authors rely on the conceptualization and operationalization of «state capacity» proposed by A. Melville, A. Akhremenko and I. Gorelskiy, as they find it very close in meaning to «governance» as an «asset». In the empirical part, authors offer an original operationalization of «status», bringing together a set of indicators which reflects both its material and non-material components. Based on a hierarchical cluster analysis of the status’s and state capacity’s indicators with fine-tuning control of parameters, robust groups of countries were obtained and their intersection was found in terms of the variables under consideration. As a result, the authors, having studied such groups referring to radar charts which serve as a special form of visualization of multidimensional data, conclude that between the two latent constructs - status in international relations and state capacity - there is a positive relationship, which is also fixed in the time dynamics.

государство, статус, международные отношения, иерархия, государственная состоятельность, иерархическая кластеризация, лепестковые диаграммы, state, status, international relations, hierarchy, state capacity, hierarchical clustering, radar charts

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