ABSTRACT
In places where the jurisdiction of the state rarely extends beyond the boundaries of the capital buildings or cities, the importance of the state as an idea has increased salience. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book sets out to capture the concept of the idea of the state and operationalize it. It seeks to challenge conventional thinking on what makes some states strong and others weak. Bonding social capital is either the highest value when compared with bridging social capital and nationalism, or nationalism outweighs the other two, with bonding social capital as the lowest value in these instances. Bonding social capital and bridging social capital are not significantly correlated across the forty-two countries; however, national pride and identity are negatively correlated with bridging social capital. Measures of state power are measures that capture the ability of a state to project influence abroad.
