Introduction

• The state is a basic concept in Political Science and holds significant importance.

• Numerous definitions of the state have emerged since the days of the ancient Greeks.

• There are as many meanings of the state as there are theorists attempting to define it.

• According to liberals, the state is an association with population, definite territory, administration/government, and sovereignty.

• Marx viewed the state as an instrument in the hands of the economically dominant class, exploiting the have-nots and functioning as an executive committee for the bourgeoisie to oppress the proletariat.

• Anarchists, social democrats, and Gandhians have their own unique perspectives on the state.

• Different political philosophies provide different meanings and theories regarding the origin, nature, and functions of the state.

Background

• Societies before or without a political state are studied in fields like paleolithic history, archaeology, cultural anthropology, social anthropology, and ethnology, which investigate the social and power structures of indigenous and uncontacted peoples in tribal communities.

• In the 17th and 18th centuries, political philosophers often used the “state of nature” concept to imagine human society before the existence of states and governments, focusing on how and why humans transitioned to organized societies.

• The origin of organized society was often envisioned as an original agreement, a “social contract”, among people in the state of nature.

• Three significant versions of state of nature theory are presented by Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau.

• It was commonly assumed that force and violence were necessary for human welfare, and government is based on violence and force, sustained by soldiers, policemen, and courts.

• The beginnings of the state are traced back to early human history when the strongest individuals used force to seize power and enforce their rule upon others, not to protect the weak but to benefit themselves.

• John Locke discusses the state of nature in his Second Treatise on Civil Government, written during the Exclusion Crisis in 1680s England, where all men are free to order their actions within the bounds of the law of nature.

• Locke believes the law of nature is governed by reason, and reason teaches that no one should harm another’s life, liberty, or property.

• Locke argues that the lack of a common judge with authority creates a state of nature, and without right, force upon a person’s body creates a state of war.

• Locke may have been responding to writers like Robert Filmer, not necessarily Hobbes.

• Thomas Hobbes describes the state of nature in his works Leviathan and On the Citizen, where humans are naturally equal but prone to conflict, leading to a war of all against all (bellum omnium contra omnes).

• In Hobbes’s view, without a common power to keep people in check, life in the state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

• Hobbes’s natural law theory posits that the first law is to seek peace, and individuals must be willing to lay down their natural rights for the sake of peace and self-defense.

• Hobbes develops the idea of moving from the state of nature to a political society through mutual contracts.

• Hobbes believes the state of nature exists between independent countries without common laws, influencing international law and realism theories.

• Montesquieu discusses the state of nature in The Spirit of the Laws, where early humans, seeking to preserve their life, would initially feel impotent and weak, making them unlikely to attack each other.

• Humans, driven by fear and impulse, would unite to create society, leading to a state of war between societies formed in the same way.

• For Montesquieu, the formation of law in society reflects and applies reason.

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau challenged Hobbes’ view in the 18th century, claiming that Hobbes imagined socialized people living outside society, rather than considering humans as blank slates influenced by society and environment.

• In Rousseau’s state of nature, people did not have enough interaction to come into serious conflict, and they held normal values.

• Modern society and ownership disrupt the state of nature, which Rousseau sees as true freedom.

• David Hume, in A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), argued that humans are naturally social and could not remain in a savage condition for long. He views the state of nature as a philosophical fiction without any reality.

• Hume criticized both Hobbes’ and Rousseau’s hypothetical states, calling Hobbes’ humanity incredible and stating that if humans were universally benevolent, justice wouldn’t be a virtue, as justice arises from selfishness and the scanty provision nature offers.

• John C. Calhoun, in Disquisition on Government (1850), argued that the state of nature is hypothetical and self-contradictory, stating that political states have always existed and men are born into social and political states.

• According to Calhoun, the natural state of man is social and political, not the state of nature, which is incompatible with human needs and desires.

• John Rawls used an artificial state of nature in his theory of justice, placing individuals in an original position under a veil of ignorance, without knowledge of their intelligence, wealth, or abilities.

• In the original position, people would agree on a society that protects basic liberties and ensures some economic guarantees, forming the basis of modern societies.

• Robert Nozick, in Anarchy, State, and Utopia, countered Rawls’ liberal theory with a libertarian view, arguing that a minimalist state would naturally develop from the state of nature through mutual agreements without violating anyone’s rights or using force.

• According to Hobbes, once a civil government is established, the state of nature disappears between individuals, as the government enforces contracts and laws of nature.

• Between nations, however, there is no such civil power, so nations have the same rights to self-preservation, including the right to make war.

• Some writers, like Immanuel Kant, proposed the idea of an association of nations or a worldwide civil society to address this issue.

• Rawls also applied his original position thought experiment to international relationships in his work The Law of Peoples, arguing that peoples, not states, should be the basic unit examined in international relations.

• Rawls suggested that states should follow principles from his A Theory of Justice, with democracy being the most logical way to achieve these goals, while accepting benign non-democracies at the international stage.

• Rawls developed eight principles for how a people should act in international relations.

• Hobbes took a purely empirical approach to human conduct, denying the existence of moral right and wrong outside positive law, which could lead to the view that rights and wrongs are conventional determinations.

• Hobbes’ view is influenced by his rejection of pure mathematics, famously asserting that a point has extension and a line has breadth, demonstrating his empirical worldview.

Meaning of the Concept ‘State’

Etymology of the concept ‘State’

• The existence of the state predates its name.

• The word ‘State’ appeared in Italy in the early sixteenth century in the writings of Machiavelli (1469-1527).

• The meaning of the state as body-politics became common in England and France in the later part of the sixteenth century.

• The German equivalent staatnkunst became associated with ragione de state during the seventeenth century.

• Later, the term staatscrecht in Germany came to mean jus publicum.

• The word State originates from the Latin word ‘Statue’, meaning ‘standing’ or ‘position’ of a person or a body of persons.

• Ernest Barker states that Latin ‘status’ gave rise to three English words:

  • ‘Estate’ (referring to a ‘standing’ or ‘position’ related to property),

  • ‘Estate’ (in terms of social rank or grade),

  • ‘State’ (referring to stateliness vested in an individual or body of persons, especially a political position of superiority or supremacy).

• The word ‘State’ was often used interchangeably with ‘sovereign’ or ‘king’ during the 16th-17th centuries.

• Louis XIV famously said, “I am the State”, symbolizing the idea that the ruler was the embodiment of the state.

• Prior terms like ‘polis’ in ancient Greece, ‘res publica’ in Rome, and ‘commonwealth’ during the medieval age did not clearly define the sovereign political position of a ruler.

• These terms referred to the entire community of people living in a territory, with the rulers being a part of it.

• It was in the writings of Machiavelli and subsequent theorists that the word ‘state’ came to represent not only the ruler’s position but also the degree of political authority they held.

• By the later part of the 18th century and most of the 19th century, there was an emphasis on internal supremacy and external independence of the sovereign authority.

• With the rise of democracy and the liberal-capitalist system, the concept of the state evolved to include the entire body of people residing in it.

• Barker pointed out that the state is now the whole community, the whole legal association, and the juridical organization.

• This shift reflects the democratic development, where the state was redefined to represent the people, and the term ‘government’ replaced ‘state’ for the authority.

State as the Political Philosophers Know it

• Plato (428-347 B.C.) viewed the state as a system of relationships where everyone does their own business, and the rulers maintain these relationships.

• Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), Plato’s disciple, defined the state as an ‘association of households and villages sharing a life of virtue, aiming at perfect and self-complete existence’.

• Cicero (106-43 B.C.), a Roman jurist, described the state as ‘the people’s affairs, united by common agreement about law and rights, and by the desire to participate in mutual advantage’.

• Machiavelli (1469-1527) viewed the state as an end in itself, existing for its own preservation and advantage.

• Jean Bodin (1530-1596) defined the state as a ‘lawful government of several households and their common possessions, with sovereign powers’.

• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) described the state as a power providing people ‘their own preservation and a more contented life’.

• John Locke (1632-1704) stated that the great end of men’s uniting into commonwealths and government is the preservation of property.

• Bentham (1748-1832) regarded the state as a means to achieve ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number’, with four subordinate ends: abundance, subsistence, equality, and security.

• Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) saw the state as a committee of management without intrinsic authority, relying on ethical consent from citizens.

• Rousseau (1712-1778) described the state as a union of persons, previously called a city, now called a Republic or body-politics, being sovereign when active and power when compared to others.

• Edmond Burke (1729-1793) defined the state as ‘a partnership in all science, arts, virtue, and perfection, involving the living, the dead, and those yet to be born’.

• Hegel (1770-1831) considered the state as a divine and moral entity capable of bestowing all spiritual reality.

• John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) viewed the state as a positive instrument aiding individuals to achieve progress and enjoy liberty.

• Thomas Hill Green (1836-1882) defined the state as a body of persons with recognized rights and institutions to maintain those rights.

• Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Frederick Engels (1820-1895) regarded the state as the political organization of the economically dominant class, meant to safeguard the existing order.

• Elitists emphasize the rule of the few over many as the key fact of history.

• Pluralists view the state as a political association responsible for establishing social order in society.

• Fascists idealize the state, believing it can achieve any glory.

• Syndicalists and anarchists question the worth of the state, with anarchists aiming for a free order without political enslavement or economic exploitation.

• Evolutionary socialism seeks to introduce socialism through the state, viewing the state as an agency for reforms.