Changing Notions of State

Dr. Avinash Samal

Assistant Professor
Hidayatullah National Law University
Raipur, Chhattisgarh
Different Notions of State
 Ethical State
 Legal State
 Church-State
 National Sovereign State
 State – A man-made artificial institution
 State – An Unnecessary Evil
 State – A Necessary Evil
 Totalitarian State
 Pluralist State
 State – A Class instrument
 Welfare State
 Regulatory State
Ethical State
 Plato & Aristotle – Emphasis on ethics & Philosophy
 State - first and foremost condition of virtuous life
 It is the highest form of moral order
 A supreme, all powerful, all comprehensive and all-
embracing institution
 It inculcates ‘humanity’ in the ‘being’ and hence
human beings existence without state is not
possible
 It regards the state as an end in itself
 Self-perfection and self-fulfillment can only be
achieved through the state
 Moral, intellectual & material development can only
be possible through the instrumentality of state
Cont.
 The concept of “Ideal State” - In his 'Republic‘, Plato argued
that the state should train men in a life of virtue.
 The end of the state, according to Aristotle, is good life for
the citizens.
 State as an ethical institution creates conditions for the
fullest development of human personality - Modern idealists
like Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Green and Gandhi have
accepted this
 The state exists to promote social and moral good on the
largest possible scale.
 A good citizen is possible in a good state and perfect
state cannot be conceived where wrong ethical principles
prevail.
 Laws are obeyed with greater readiness if they are based
on the moral ideas of the community.
Legal State
 Roman empire emerged by merging the tiny city-states of the
Greek world establishing:
 Unity, uniform law and order, strong administration, and a
despotic political system
 While absence of unity was the weakness of Greek city-states,
it was considered the strength of Roman empire
 “Greece had developed democracy without unity, whereas
Rome secured unity without democracy” - Gettell
 Romans taught the world that a large state might be stable
and successfully governed
 Rome – three stages of development
 Like Greek counterparts - city states
 Republic
 An Empire
 The first two stages were replaced by the third stage by the
close of the 1st Century BC
Cont…
 Successful Commanders like Marius, Caesar, Augustus
etc. established despotic empires with concentration of
authority, uniformity of law, sovereign organization,
limited participation of citizens in public affairs
 Nursed ideals like unity, order, law, discipline, strength
etc.
 Establishment of a “universal code of law” – most
important contribution
 Taught the world that large states are much better and
can provide stability, peace, order and good government
 Liberty of citizens sacrificed for the sake of stable
political system
Cont…
 This gave birth to legal notion of state
 State was viewed as highest law making
power
 Laws had universal character
 Political problems of Romans were
administrative and legal rather than ethical
 Gave birth to Roman Law which is the basis of
most of the legal systems of world even today
 Philosophers like Polybius and Cicero
concentrated on the art of governing and law-
making
Cont…
 The Roman Empire lasted about 500 years
with all its cruelty and despotism
 Class structure – masters and slaves
 Roman empire became very weak in 4th
century – corruption of officials, dictatorial
regimes of emperors, slave unrest, lack of
liberty, equality and the advent of Christianity
 Emperor Constantine made a compromise
with Christianity by declaring it a state
religion leading to the establishment of
Church-State
Church-State
 There was mass unrest in the public against the
dictatorial regimes of Roman emperors and they were
faced with unprecedented crisis from within and without
 Christianity became very popular for its progressive
ideas
 It raised its voice against injustice and exploitation
 Roman Emperors tried to crush Christianity
 In the verge of decline, Roman emperors forged an
alliance with Christianity
 Assimilated Christianity and turned this potential enemy
into an ally – an act of highest statesmanship on the part
of the state
Cont…
 Partnership between church and the state helped establish
peace and order in the society for sometime
 “Partnership between the cross and the Eagle brought gain and
loss to both” – Lipson
 After the partnership, the progressive Church became a citadel
of reaction, anti-progress and anti-people
 “Becoming and integral part of the established order, the
church ceased to be a victim of persecution and was able
henceforth to do persecuting.”
 Roman Empire could save itself from inner dangers but failed
to face the external aggression
 In the fifth century, Teutonic people (Barbarians) attacked
Roman Empire and destroyed it by establishing smaller
kingdoms
 This led to the emergence of a feudal system
Feudal System
 Instead of centralized authority of the Roman Empire,
many political authorities emerged and unity was
replaced by diversity
 Society was divided into “feudal lords” and “Serfs”
 Political authority rested with the landlords and
individual’s relationship with land determined his rights
and duties
 The hierarchy of political authority was built on the basis
of ownership of land
 Supreme lord – tenants in-chief – tenants – serfs
 The supreme lord (King) had indirect authority over the
people and it was divided amongst the local feudal lords
 The authority was decentralized
Church and the State
 Feudalism and the Church – Two important features of
the medieval period
 Christian church survived the fall of Roman Empire
 Religion dominated the mentality of the people in the
Middle Ages to a level unparalleled in the history of
Western civilization
 Derived its strength from the absence of strong
government
 In the name of religion it mustered good amount of
power, wealth and prestige
 Taught that world is nothing – prayer is the solution for
everything – religion is the main thing
 Diverted the attention of the exploited class by drawing
them towards religion
Cont…
 As the Church was serving the interest of the
ruling classes indirectly, it became popular
among them and they adopted Christianity
 Started interfering on matters such as
collection of taxes and maintenance of law
and order
 Church power went on increasing and it began
to claim superiority over kings and princes
and virtually became the sate
 King should be under the power of the Church
– St. Augustine
Cont…
 Entry of Church into politics and,
consequently, the bitter conflict
between the two became the
fundamental political issue of the age
 State was crushed between two forces
– Church and Feudalism
 Masses were exploited and were in
slumber hoping for salvation in the next
world
Socio-Economic & Political
Structure
 Pope
 Kings
 Feudal Lords
 Big Landlords
 Masses, Serfs & small producers
Conflict between the Church and
the State
 Church’s attempt to limit the authority of Kings and its
interference in internal affairs
 Theory of two swords – Pope Glasious –interpreted differently
 King was not directly under the God but under the Pope who
had the sole agency from God to conduct all the affairs
 Pope had acquired much wealth & power and started
challenging the Kings
 Pope claimed to be the “absolute master of all princes who
were bound to kiss his feet, and whom he could depose at
will…”
 This led to the open fight between the Church (religious order)
and the King representing the secular order
 The kings became victorious, i.e. the Eagle swallowed the
Cross
 This lead to the emergence of modern national sovereign states
in European world putting an end to the feudal authority and
the international order represented by the Pope
Nature of the Church-State
 No development of knowledge, science
technology, state etc.
 Feudalistic economy - within which poor peasants,
serfs and small producers were badly exploited
 Scientific knowledge was the greatest enemy of
Church which was based on faith-Scientist Bruno
(1548-1600) was burnt
 State remained very weak throughout the
medieval period (dark ages) and there was no
concept of sovereignty
National Sovereign State
 Modern national sovereign states emerged during
the 16-17th centuries
 Political movements were directed against papacy
and feudalism to support a strong monarchy
 Strong Kings emerged in the European world and
were identified as sovereign and unified national
powers
 Separation of religion from politics led to
establishment of secular state
 “The state and the king were identified as one” -
Machiavelli and Bodin
 “I am the state” – Luis XIV
 The state meant the power of the king and he
personified the sate
State – An Artificial Man-made
Institution
 Before the 17th century, in the ancient and
medieval times, the was considered either
as natural order (Greek Philosophers) or a
legal order (Roman Thinkers) or a divine
order (Church-Sate notion)
 During the 17th Century it was seen as a
product of a social contract
 This view regards the state as a machine –
an artificial man-made institution which is
the result of social contract among free
individuals
State – A Necessary Evil: Liberal
Individualist Notion
 Individualists – supporters of negative
freedom of the individual – believe the
state as an evil because it limits the
freedom of the individual
 State is necessary – as without it law and
order can not be maintained in the market
society composed of selfish and egoistic
individuals
 Adam Smith, Herbert Spencer etc.
State – An Unnecessary Evil:
Anarchist Notion
 Ultra individualists – anarchists – regard State not
only an evil but also unnecessary
 State an instrument of oppression and with the
moral development of man state will become
redundant
 A healthy society does not need an unhealthy
institution like the state
 Believes in a stateless society
 Aims at destroying state and placing the society
under the control of self-governing institutions
 Godwin, Proudhon etc.
Totalitarian State
 Emergence of Fascism
 State must have absolute powers and the
individuals cannot be allowed any rights
against the state
 State can do no wrong and hence it cannot
be opposed by any individual, group or
association of the society
 Philosophers like Hegel and dictators like
Mussolini and Hitler supported this view of
the state
Pluralist State
 This notion of state gained currency
because of views of the supporters of
pluralist concept of sovereignty
 Decentralization of political power and
opposition to absolute sovereignty of state
 State merely an association in society and
in no way superior to other associations
performing their functions
 Laski and MacIver
Marxist State – A Class
Instrument
 The basis of any society is the economic
sub-structure, i.e. the mode of production
which determines classes in society
 Cultural, moral and political super-
structure of the society is based on
economic sub-structure
 State is an coercive instrument belonging
to the capitalist class
 It uses it to oppress the other classes
 An instrument of political power of the
economically dominating classes
Welfare State – Contemporary
Liberal State
 Liberalism considers the state as an
welfare or social service agency
 State is not merely a legal institution
having law-making power and coercive
power to make laws
 It must serve the society and satisfy the
maximum demands pf the maximum
number of people
 Not only law and order – but also promote
social welfare and serve common interest
 Green, Laski MacIver
Regulatory State
 Crisis in welfare state
 Failure of state to manage everything
 Withdrawal of state from many sector
 Outsourcing and contracting out of
services earlier performed by the state
 Entry of private players and State
competing with them as one of the players
 Need for independent and impartial
regulation