Political Science by Mazharul Haq

Part 1

The Nature of the state

Origin of the term ”state”.-

The ’state’, as a politically organised community, has existed in human history since very
early times. The ancient Greeks called it ”polls”, which means a politically organised
city-community, or ’city-state’ as we now call it. (From ’polis’ is derived the English
term ’politics’). The ancient Romans called the city-state ”civitas” from which such
English words as ’city’, ’citizen’, ’civilisation’, ’civic’ arc derived. The Romans also
used another term, namely ”Status re publicae”. The Latin term ’status’ became ”stato”
in Italian in the Middle Ages, and adopted different forms in various European languages
in the 15th or 16th centuries A.D. In French it became ”state”, in English ”state”, in
German ”staat”, and so on.

Different meanings of the state.--

The term ’state is used in different senses. To an ordinary man, it appears as a sort of
policeman writ large, and to a learned writer, like Hobbes, it is a ”Leviathan” -a giant
whose body is composed of the countless bodies of human beings. The ancient Hindus
understood it as ”Danda”, i.e., power, and so did it appear in the eyes of medieval writers
and peoples. To the Muslims in the Middle Ages the state was kingly power. Modern
writers and philosophers have also described it in various ways. Some describe it as a sort
of general joint-stock company and others as a living organism. To the idealist
philosophers it is a moral personality, an image of God on earth. To the Marxists it is an
instrument of class domination. To the jurists it is a law-making institution;

Various Definitions.--
Definitions of the state are almost as many as the authors who write about it. Aristotle
defined the state as ”a community of families and villages having for its end a perfect
and self-sufficing life, by which we mean a happy and honorable life.

Harold J.Laskl defines the state as ”a territorial society divided into government
and subjects claiming, within its allotted physical area, supremacy over all other
institutions”.20 Thus Laski also emphasises the four elements constituting the
state, viz., (i) society or people, (ii) territory or an allotted physical area, (in)
government and (iv) supremacy or sovereignty.
A writer on International Law, Hall, defines the state from the point of view of the
International Law. He says: ”The marks of an independent State are that the
community constituting it is permanently established for a political end, that it
possesses a defined territory, and that it is independent of external control”.
President Woodrpw Wilson defines it simply as ”a people organised for law
within a definite territory.
Harold J.Laskl defines the state as ”a territorial society divided into government
and subjects claiming, within its allotted physical area, supremacy over all other
institutions”.20 Thus Laski also emphasises the four elements constituting the
state, viz., (i) society or people, (ii) territory or an allotted physical area, (in)
government and (iv) supremacy or sovereignty.
We may define it thus: The state is a community of people, occupying a definite
territory, organised under a government, which is supreme over all persons and
associations within its territory and independent of all foreign control or power.

ELEMENTS OF THE STATE

From the definitions of the state, given above, we learn that it is composed of
four essential elements or attributes:

1. Population; _
I f Physical bases of the state;

2. Land or Territory;
Political or spiritual bases of the state
3. Government; and
4. Sovereignty. / Political or spiritual bases of the state

STATE DISTINGUISHED FROIVS GOVERNMENT

In popular discussion, the terms ’slate’ and ’government’ are often used
interchangeably; the one is used for the other. The two are often confused
together. There is a celebrated saying of a French King, Louis XIV,”I am the Stat”.
What he meant was:”I am the Government.” Let us now distinguish the state
from the government, a distinction which was first made by the famous French
thinker, JJ.Rousseau.

1. The state is abstract, the government concrete.

2- Government is a narrower term than the state.
3. The state is permanent, the government is temporary.
4. Sovereignty belongs to the state, not to the government.
5. Territory is an essential characteristic of the state but not of the
government.
6. The state is an association; the government is an organization.

STATE AND SOCIETY

The two terms, state and society, are sometimes used interchangeably. Ancient Greeks
and modern idealist thinkers make no distinction between the two. However, there are
some differences between them, as shown by both Sociology and Political Science.
These differences are as follows:

1. Society is a wider term than the state.

Maclver has rightly remarked, ”There are social forces, like custom or competition,
which the state may protect or modify but certainly does not create; and social motives
like friendship or jearlousy, which establish relattionship too intimate and personal to be
controlled by the great engine of the state”.

2. State has territorial reference, but not society.

3. State Is sovereign, socity is not
4. The state cannot exist without a government but a society may not be politically
organised.

5. The state and the sbeity differ in purpose.

Their interrelation.
In spite of their differences and distinctions the state and society are interrlated. As
Prof. Barker says: ”They overlap, they blend, and they borrow from one another”. The
state is the highest form of social organisation. It provides the framework of the social
order. According to| Laski, the state is a way of regulating human conduct. ”
Their interrelation should not, however, be carried to an extreme. If the state
endeavours to regulate every aspect of social life and relationship, it will’ become
despotic and tyrannical, and destory the liberty of the individual. It is for this reason that
the two terms, state and society, should be clearly distinguished. An omnicompetent
state will really become an incompcntent state. Hence society and state must remain
distinct and separate in nature, functions and ends. ”To identify the social with the
political is to be guilty of the grossest confusion”, writers Maclvcr, ”which completly
bars any understanding of either society or state”-*