According to Gerth and Mills (1948), “the state is a human community that successfully claims monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.” It can consist of the government or legislature which passes the laws, the bureaucracy or
According to Gerth and Mills (1948), “the state is a human community that successfully claims monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.” It can consist of the government or legislature which passes the laws, the bureaucracy or civil service, which implements the governmental decisions, the national security forces, such as the police and army, which enforces the law and protect the state from threats respectively. Some political scientist believes that the state can also consist of health and welfare services and education.
Political Scientists have argued that there are three types of states. There is the Stateless, Feudal and Modern States.
The stateless, according to Evans-Pritchard (1951) is like a tribal society in Africa, where there is no head. Few decisions had to be taken which affects the tribe; such as raiding another tribe and how to initiate young men into adulthood. Decisions are normally reached informally through discussions among tribe members. There is no legal system, where specific individuals are charged for deviation. Instead, the accused must duel to death his accuser and whoever wins is right.
Whereas, the feudal state, according to Gianfranco Poggi (1978), is like those of Europe, where a Monarchy system is in place. In this type of state, the monarch rule at the center, in practice, military power and control of particular territories which are in the hands of lords of their respective regions. On the hand, the modern state, according to economist C.V. Brown (1982), is a centralized state which development is based upon the modernization and industrialization of societies. In present day United Kingdom, the state is involved in and controls the economic affairs, provision of welfare, healthcare and education.
Perspectives of the State
The functionalist Talcott Parsons (1967) sees the state as an authoritative being. It is regarded as legitimate as long as it achieves what he calls ‘collective goal’, which are to care for the society. He looked at it from the electoral perspective where that “the deposit of power by constituents are revocable, if not at will by the politician, by the constituents at the next election”.
In contrast, the Marxist believes that the state should be in the hands of the minority in society. According to Engels (1950), this means that the minorities provides the basis of the state’s dominance, because it’s the only way to return to the power to the people. However, the real power would always be resting in the ‘owners of the means of production’ or as Karl Marx call them, the Bourgeoisie. He added that in the primitive societies, there is no such thing as a state, because all individuals share the same interest and there is no existing class system.
Additionally, the classical pluralist sees the state as a constant concept. There seem to be a fixed amount of power which is distributed among the society. This is similar to the Marxist belief on the state, except that they believe that there exist a class system, whether it be age, gender, religion or ethnicity, there is a class system present. According to the French writer, de Tocqueville (1945), each arm of the society is required to have a large and equal interest in the state business. He believed that the state would become selfish if one class decides to dominate the other classes.
Nevertheless, Poulantzas (1976) posed the state as ‘the factor of cohesion of social formation’; in other words the state was vital for maintaining the stability of capitalism. As part of the superstructure, it would automatically tend to serve the interest of the ruling class. Therefore, the elite or ruling class does not have to become members of the state, because the capitalist system is benefiting them. Members of the state, no matter if they backgrounds are from humble beginnings, would never take harmful action against the ruling class.
The role of the state
The role of the state in modern contemporary societies or ‘Human Community’ is to address the current issues of its people regardless of geographical region, identity and culture. The features of the state interconnects the idealist, functionalist and organization perspectives as it acts in unison in relation to its sovergnity, private and public sectors, legitimating, domination and territorial aspects. This involvement is characterized by at least three fundamentals; increasing human interconnection (networking globally), examining the pace and depth of human evolution (history) and linking the scale of anthropological and ecological transformation (social, cultural, economic and technological).
In contemporary