CHAPTER TWO

UNDERSTANDING THE STATE

 Objectives of the Chapter
At the end of this chapter students will:
Understand the concepts of the state
Compare and contrast the various theories of
the state
Discuss the state structure and power
distribution process or pattern
Explain the elements of the state
2.1. The State Defined
• Many scholars tend to use the term state interchangeably
with other terms like ‘government, society, and country,’
though; it is different from all these concepts.
• Etymologically, the state, as a word stato, appeared in Italy
in the early part of 16th century in the writings of
Machiavelli (1416-1527).
• The meaning of the state in the sense of a body politic
became common in England and France in the latter part of
the 16th century.
• Some social scientists developed a theoretical hypothesis to
properly explain the concept of the state.
2.2. Attributes/Elements of the State

Montevideo
Convention(1933
)
People
Territory
Government.
Sovereignty
Recognition
 2.3. Theories on the Origin and
Development of the State
2.3.1. The Theory of Divine Origin
• The oldest theory concerning the primary origin of the
state is the divine right theory that claims the state to be
a divine creation.
• Accordingly, the state is established and governed by
God himself or by some superhuman power.
• God may rule the state directly or indirectly through
some ruler who is regarded as the agent or vice-regent.
• Such a state is known as a theocratic or God-ruled state.
 Cont’d
• The divine origin or the theocratic conception is almost as old
as the state itself and is found universality among early peoples.
• It is a well-authenticated fact that early forms of political
authority were beloved to be connected with the unseen
powers.
• The earliest rulers were a combination of priest and king or the
magic man and king.
• The magic men in early society were the priest and king all
combined into one.
• In the early times, the main example of exponent of the divine
origin theory was the Jews.
 Cont’d
• This theory found some of its most earnest
supporters among the early Church Fathers.
• The teaching of the Old Testament and the Church
Fathers extremely influenced the mediaeval writers
in the controversy between the Church and the
empire.
• Some of these writers used the divine origin theory
to establish the supremacy of the Church over the
State and others to establish the supremacy of the
State over the Church.
 Cont’d
• The Protestant Reformation gave a great force to
the divine origin theory and to the related
doctrine of passive obedience or non-resistance to
governmental authority; although in religious
matters it stood for individual liberty and the
supremacy of individual conscience.
• The divine origin theory more and more took the
form of the theory of the divine right of kings.
 Cont’d
• The most important characteristics of
the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings
are:
Monarchy is divinely appointed;
Hereditary right is indefeasible;
Kings are accountable to God alone; and
Resistance at a lawful king is sin.
 Cont’d
2.3.2. The Social Contract Theory
• The social contract theory holds that the state is an
artificial creation based on the voluntary agreement
or contract among the people.
• It assumes that there was a period of pre-civil or
pre- political period in human history when there
was no state at all and no political order.( state of
Nature)
• In this ‘state of nature’ the only law that governed
human relations was the law of nature.
 Cont’d
• Advocates of the social contract theory are not
agreed up on what exactly this law of nature was.
• The state of nature was either too peaceful to last
long or too inconvenient and unbearable for
human being to put up with it.
• Hence, men in this primitive state soon
abandoned the state of nature and set up a
political society through the instrumentality of a
contract.
 Social Contract Theory & Democratic
System
• Hobbes argues that the state should be conceived of as a contact
between a group of people to guarantee their mutual security and
prosperity.
• Hobbes argued that the natural condition of humanity- the state of
nature -was a thoroughly unpleasant one.
• People live in the state of anarchy, which characterized by "solitary,
poor, nasty brutish and short" life.
• The state emerged to terminate anarchism, which threatens the life of
all individuals in the state of nature.
• In order to control the trend of anarchism the state, which emerged
by mutual contact of individual at the one hand and the supposed
ruler at the other, should possess an absolute power that is no
challenged by individuals.
 Cont’d
• It was also an agreement based on the majority
interest of members of a society between the
governing and the governed defining and
limiting the rights and duties.
• As a result of the agreement each individual
lost his natural liberty in part or in whole, and
in its place he obtained the security and
protection of the state provided by political
law.
 Cont’d
• Unlike Hobbes, John Locke argued that the state of
nature was characterized by “peace, good will, mutual
assistance and preservations.“
• In such a state individuals possessed natural rights
such as the right to life, liberty, and property.
• Any defect in the state of nature arose from the absence
of an organization capable of protecting these rights.
• The state arose out of the contact of individuals in the
state of nature in order to regulate and protect the
individual natural right, especially the right to property.
 Cont’d
• Therefore, an ideal state is that which
protects life liberty and private property.
• Unlike Hobbes, Locke strongly argued that
the power of the state should be limited and
restricted by laws.
• According to Locke, the state failed to keep its
promise and individual has the right to civil
disobedience in order to over throw the ruler.
 Cont’d
• Jean Jacques Rousseau was another contract
theorist.
• His version of social contract theory is contrary to
the preceding social contact theorists.
• He argued that society is created not like a
contract and the rights and liberties of individuals
have no existence at all except in as much as
individuals are members of a group.
 Cont’d
• In simple terms man who lives in the state of
nature is part of an ideal society.
• According to Rousseau, human beings are
naturally good
• And selfish individuals whom contract theorist
describe did not exist in the state of nature,
they were not therefore natural and that when
such people did exist it was because they were
the product of a distorted society.
 Cont’d
• The contract theory has been interpreted in
various ways.
• Some regard it as an institution of civil society
alone, while others regarded it as an agreement
between the rulers and their subjects, resulting
in the institution of a particular government.
• The first type of contract is known as the social
contract, the second is the political or
governmental contract
 Cont’d
• The contracting parties of the social contract
are the individuals themselves, emerging from
the state of nature agreeing with one another
and there and with all.
• The parties to the second or the governmental
contract are the people in their corporate
capacity on the one hand, and an agent or ruler
on the other.
 Cont’d
• A further difference that we find among
the advocates of the social contract theory
is that while some regard it as an actual
historical fact( Locke perception), others
consider it as a historical fiction(Kant’s
Perception)
• To Kant the contract is merely an idea of
reason.
 Cont’d
• One other difference to be noted among the profounder of the
theory is the varied use to which they put it.
• Hobbes uses it to justify royal absolutism.
• Locke uses the theory to support constitutional government or
limited monarchy,
• Rousseau to support the doctrine of popular sovereignty in
Athenian kind of direct democracy.
• For Rousseau if government is to be legitimate, it must rest
ultimately on the consent of the governed.
• The responsibilities of government are to direct and safeguard the
rights and liberties of the people and to check the arbitrariness of
rulers.
 Cont’d

2.3.3. The Force Theory

• It claims that the state is the result of superior
physical force; the subjugation of the weaker by the
stronger.
• The theory relates the emergence of state with wars
and conflict that have been endemic in the history of
human beings.
• Accordingly, wars resulted in the conquest of more
and more territories and coercion of the weak by the
strong.
 Cont’d
2.3.4. The Natural or
Evolutionary Theory
• The evolutionary theory is
based on sociological facts
that state evolved out of the
earliest forms of self-led law
of life communities such as
family, the clan, the tribe and
the state.
• The first group of collective
human life is the family or
the household, the last is the
state.
 Cont’d
• Family is governed by the elder and when many
villages so entirely join themselves together as one
society that society is state, and contains in itself… the
end and perfection of government.
• Indeed, family is the first unit of social development.
• Historians of ancient law and early institutions have
sought to study the subject of family, its composition,
residence of authority in the family and its growth into
the clan or tribe and eventually into the state.
 Cont’d
• The original families broke up and many other families
grew out of them with the same tradition of final and
unqualified authority in the hands of a male elder.
• This larger unit became a tribe or a clan and that
eventually became a state.
• It demonstrates that from the early patriarchal family
emerged the warrior ruler judge and as political
societies increased in size and complexity, political
leadership were asserted and recognized as significant
forms of social control.
 Cont’d
2.3.5. The Marxist View
• Marxists argue state historically originated from the split
of society in to two classes with sharp and polarized
economic interest.
• The state represents the interests of particular classes, and
precisely because they are particular and not universal,
these interests can only be promoted with the backing of
force.
• Therefore, the state is seen as a set of institutions, which
through its monopoly of violence, maintain and reproduce
specific power relations
 2.4. Typologies/Forms of State
Structuring /Organization
2.4.1. Unitary State
• A unitary state is the one that concentrates all
policymaking powers in one central geographic place.
• The regional political mechanisms may be established
but they are constitutionally subordinate to and
receive all their political authority from the central
government.
.
 Cont’d
Type of Unitary State
A. Decentralized Unitary State
• Devolution or decentralization of administrative, fiscal
and political powers among sub-national levels, such as
to county, provincial, local, urban and municipal
governments is a decentralized unitary state.
• This category includes unitary states where locally-
elected legislatures and executive bodies plan, finance,
and manage issues such as levels of local property taxes,
the administration of schools, or related issues of
community development.
 Cont’d
• Bureaucrats are drawn from central government ministries
but local government have authority to supervises,
regulates and standardizes administrative and legal
processes across different regions and areas.
• The Great Britain and Norway are the best example of
decentralize unitary state.
• The United Kingdom (Britain) now has a multi-tier system
which has become increasingly complex, with elections at
supra-national level and at the sub-national levels of
regions (Scottish parliament, Welsh Assembly, and the
Greater London Authority and Mayor) etc.
 Cont’d
B. Centralized Unitary State
• the central government exercise legislature and
executive functions while administrative decisions
are implemented at provincial and local levels with
minimal political or economic decentralization.
• This ‘command-and-control’ structure is the
characteristics of less democratic regimes that limit
local autonomy or decision-making outside of the
ruling party.
 Cont’d
• In Singapore the departments of the central government
abolished local government and the country is
administered as a unified city-state since1959.
• Moreover, in Syria, where there are 13 provinces and
the City of Damascus for administrative purposes each
province is headed by a centrally-appointed governor
who acts in conjunction with partially-elected Provincial
Council.
• Real power is centralized in the hands of the president
and People’s Assembly.
 Cont’d
C. Hybrid Unitary State
• This structure lies between the unitary and federal state
structure.
• defined as states where the common organs of the
national government remain sovereign but where some
independent powers are constitutionally recognized for
certain constituent territorial units.
• For example, Great Britain, constituting Wales, Scotland,
England, and Northern Ireland, as well as five self-
governing islands (including Jersey, Guernsey, and the
Isle of Man).
 Cont’d
• Decentralization in the Great Britain has
strengthened the political influence of the Celtic
regions, through the creation of the Scottish
Parliament in and Welsh Assembly.
• Other examples of hybrid arrangements are France-
Monaco, India-Bhutan, Denmark’s relationship with
Greenland and Finland, and also confederations
• Therefore, hybrid unions are varied category fall
roughly between the full unitary and federal ideal
type.
 Cont’d
Merits
• It is a very effective and efficient form of government
• It is a flexible government.
• It brings uniformity of administration and legislation
• It is less expensive
• Less conflict of jurisdiction
• It is best suited for small country.
• Suitable for Homogenous society
 Cont’d
Demerits
• It may became autocratic to the extent of
killing the liberties of the people
• It crusts the local initiatives
• Local affairs are ignored
• Overburden central government
• Less suit for heterogeneous society and
territorially large state
 Cont’d
2.4.2. Federal State Structure
• derived from the Latin word “foedus,” that means contract or
alliance or covenant.
• is sharing of sovereignty between central and constituent
states.
The concept of Federalism is based on the notions that:

 Power is divided among different governmental levels.

 Give opportunity to Citizens to participate in different bases.
 Ethno-regions have rights to be culturally different through
constitutional and other means of public policy protection.
 Cont’d
[Link]. Process of Federalism
• Federations come into existence under two
circumstances as result of various reasons.
1. Coming together federalism
• It is process of organizing federalism by
aggregation of independent state
• Some federations emerged from a voluntary
contract between previously autonomous states like
in the United States, Switzerland and Canada….
 Cont’d
This is adopted for the following reasons:
 To achieve military security or the need for common defence,
 A need for self-government,
 An understanding of that fact that unity could secure
independence
 Anticipation of economic advantage from union,
 To achieve similar political set up actions,
 Large territorial size and the desire to facilitate government
 Cont’d
2. With holding together Federalism
• Is Federalism by disaggregation
• a power is shared from an existing
national government to the newly created
subunits
• This holds true for Belgium, Ethiopia,
and Nigeria
 Cont’d
Such nations adopted federation for the following goals
 To guarantee the right to self-government of particular groups over their
local concerns,
 To reform the socio- cultural situations of the sate that make a unitary
system are unacceptable.
 In a diversified society, to accommodate differences of whatever nature
that has become or are seen as irreducible to a common denominator,
 To mitigate problems related to identity question, and
 To avoid civil war etc.
 Cont’d

[Link]. Basic Federal Principles

 Constitution.
 Territorial division and autonomy.
 Power division.
 Act on individuals. Participation through elected
representatives.
 Legal review.
 Cont’d
Power Arrangement in Federal System
A. Power and function exclusively granted
to the national or federal government.
B. Power and functions delegated to the
regional governments.
C. Concurrent power and functions.
 Cont’d
No Advantage Disadvantage

1 Interest groups cannot easily take over Limited but motivated interest groups
the government. Small groups of can block the will of the majority for
people have a chance to be heard and extended periods of time
influence legislation.

2 The various levels of government The various levels of government can be

provide several alternatives for a confusing to a citizen, so that he or she
citizen to be heard regarding a does not know which official to contact
concern.

3 Varied policies among states are good Varied policies among states even for
because uniform laws don't make speed limits and driving ages create
sense in many areas. confusion and inequality.

4 Variety of policies among states Variety of policies among states creates

promotes experimentation and inequality between citizens of different
creativity. states.
 Cont’d
Model of Federal State Structure
A. Dual Federalism
• In dual federalism, national powers and state powers are
distinctly separate.
• No one of them allowed interfering in the activities of
the other.
• In the beginning of American federal system, there was
a quite clear line separating the subject of the national
government and the subject of the state governments.
• Known as layer cake federalism
 Cont’d
B. Cooperative Federalism
• In this federalism, the national and state governments carried out
joint venture.
• The national government became the major provider of resources
while the state governments became the major implementers of the
joint programs.
• Hence, the line separating the national government and the state
governments became vague.
• Cooperative federalism is a concept of federalism in which
national, state and its sub units interact cooperatively and
collectively to tackle common problems.
• Known as Marble cake Federalism
 Cont’d
C. Permissive Federalism
• Almost similar to a unitary structure.
• The regional governments have limited powers and authorities
only those permitted to them by the federal government.
• It denotes a stage at which the regions have almost no exclusive
power in relation to the centre.
• the political position of the regions is so diminished that the centre
has a leading position.
• Therefore in this type of federalism the local states derive their
existence and authorities form the central government.
• This type of federalism is exercised in the Russian Federation,
Austria, Malaysia and Mexico.
 Cont’d
D. Asymmetric and Symmetric Federalism
• In Asymmetric Federalism some constituent units
posses more power…This can be found in the federal
systems of Canada and Malaysia.
• In Symmetric Federalism this arrangement, all entities
have the same quantity of self-rule and shared-rule.
• All the segments will be subject to the same division
of powers between the federal and state governments.
…Example United States of America and the
Switzerland.
 Con-federal Structure
• refers to ‘a system of co-ordinated sovereign
powers’.
• In theory, the confederate organization limits
the independence of the member states but it
does not limit their sovereignty.
• The confederation is based on the legitimacy of
its members.
• Organized by sovereign state for mutual
benefits… Eg European Union
 Differences between Unitary, Federal and Con-federal Structure

Structure Power to Self-Rule Shared-Rule

Centralized There is no right to self-rule There is no share

Unitary State of power
Decentralize There is a right to, but no right No (with
d Unitary to self Organization. exceptions)
State
Federal State There is a right to self-rule as There is share of
well as a right to self- power
Organization.
Confederatio There is a right to self-rule with There is share of
n a right to self-Organization: very power
high degree.
 a n k You
Th