Each of these aspects deserves attention. Indeed, the understanding of the state as an organization of political power emphasizes that it stands out among other subjects of the political system. special qualities, represents the official form of organization of power, and the only organization of political power that controls the entire society. At the same time, political power is one of the hallmarks of a state. Therefore, it is inappropriate to reduce the concept of the state to it.
From the outside, the state acts as a mechanism for exercising power and managing society, as an apparatus of power. Consideration of the state through the direct embodiment of political power in the apparatus, the system of organs - also does not fully reveal its concept. This consideration does not take into account the activities of the system of local governments and others.
The state is a special political reality. Revealing the content of the concept of the state, it should be brought under such a generic concept as political organization. If the state before the middle of the 19th century can be defined as the political organization of the ruling class, then the later, and especially modern, state is the political organization of the whole society. The state becomes not just a power based on coercion, but an integral organization of society, which expresses and protects individual, group and public interests, ensures organization in the country on the basis of economic and spiritual factors, implements the main thing that civilization gives people - democracy, economic freedom. , the freedom of an autonomous individual.
The main approaches to the definition of the concept of the state
Political-legal - representatives of this approach take the organizational aspect of the state as a basis and consider it as expressed in the system government agencies special specific organization of public power.
Sociological - within the framework of which the state is an organization of all members of society, which are united into a single whole with the help of political, managerial processes and relations.
The state is a sovereign, political-territorial organization of public power, which manages society and has for this apparatus, enforcement agencies and a system of legislation and taxation.
State signs:
1. The state presupposes the existence of a certain territory, i.e. a section of the earth's surface delineated by boundaries, on which it exercises its power. The territory of the state includes land, subsoil, airspace, water. The territory of the state is recognized as the territory of diplomatic missions, the territory of military, air and sea vessels, wherever they are, civil air and sea vessels located in neutral waters. The territory of spaceships is also recognized as the territory of the state.
2. The state implies the population, which includes people living in the territory of this state. The legal connection between the state and the population is carried out through the institution of citizenship (citizenship). The creation of this connection is a set of mutual rights, duties and responsibilities.
3. The state is distinguished by the presence of public authority, separated from the people. This power is represented by the state apparatus, i.e. system of state bodies that exercise this power.
4. The state assumes the existence of a system of taxes and fees, i.e. gratuitous obligatory payments in favor of the state, on the basis of which the material and financial base of the state's activities is formed. The sum of revenues and expenditures constitutes the state budget.
5. The state has a monopoly (exclusive) right (opportunity) to issue binding and executive decisions that can act either in the form of regulatory shields (laws, by-laws) or in the form of individual acts (court sentences, decisions of administrative bodies).
6. Only the state has armed formations and compulsory institutions (army, police, prison). Armed formations are one of the most important factors in ensuring effective power. They perform the function of legalized coercion, for which they have the appropriate means.
7. Only the state is the representative of the whole society. It personifies society and acts on its behalf.
The state has a special political and legal property - sovereignty. Sovereignty consists in the supremacy of state power within the country and the independence of the state outside it.
The signs of sovereignty are:
independence- the ability to independently make decisions within the country and outside, subject to the norms of national and international law;
completeness(in other words: universality) - the extension of state power to all spheres of public life, to the entire population and public organizations of the country;
indivisibility the authorities of the state within its territory - the unity of power as a whole and only its functional division into branches of power: legislative, executive, judicial; direct implementation of government decrees through their channels;
independence during foreign relations - the ability to independently make decisions outside the country, while respecting the norms of international law and respecting the sovereignty of other countries,
equality in foreign relations - the presence in international relations of such rights and obligations as in other countries.
inalienability- the impossibility of arbitrary alienation of legitimate and legal power, only the existence of a legally enshrined opportunity to delegate the sovereign rights of the state to local governments (in a unitary state), subjects of the federation and local governments (in a federal state),
Any state has sovereignty, regardless of the size of their territory, population, form of government and structure. State sovereignty is a basic principle of international law. It has found its expression in the UN Charter and other international legal documents.
8. has formal details - official symbols: flag, coat of arms, anthem.
In this way, The state is a sovereign political and territorial organization of society that has power, which is exercised by the state apparatus on the basis of legal norms that ensure the protection and coordination of public, group, individual interests, relying, if necessary, on legal coercion.
State- is a sovereign, political-territorial organization of public authority, which manages society and has for this purpose the administrative apparatus, enforcement agencies and the system of legislation and taxation.
Similar information.
Various social forces (classes, nations, other social groups and strata), expressing their fundamental interests, unite in various political organizations: parties, unions, associations, movements. Some of these organizations have a fairly rigid command structure, they do not allow a variety of opinions and positions, and thus resemble, as it were, a knightly order. Other political organizations, on the contrary, seek to integrate and express the interests of various social groups. Each of these organizations, parties sets as its main task the development of strategic and tactical questions of the theory and practice of politics, and therefore seeks to come up with some specific intellectual and political initiative. Reflecting group (corporate) interests and goals in their activities, each of these organizations (parties) is an amateur, and not a state organization, because it is based on the principle of participation, involvement, voluntary membership. All these organizations act on the basis of certain norms and rules established in society in order to realize their interests, to influence and influence the functioning of public power concentrated in the state. This is not accidental, because it is the state that is the main, main political organization of society, since only it has the most powerful levers of power capable of determining and regulating political life society as a whole, to manage all the processes of its development.
The question of the state, admittedly, is one of the most complex and controversial. There are many contradictions in the definition of its nature and essence. Some, like Hegel, consider him an "earthly deity", others, like F. Nietzsche, a "cold monster". Some (anarchists: M.A. Bakunin, P.A. Kropotkin) demand its immediate abolition, others (Hobbes, Hegel), on the contrary, believe that the state is necessary for man and society, and they can never do without it. There are just as many disagreements in identifying the reasons for the emergence of the state and the foundations for its existence and development.
Perhaps the most ancient theory of the state is organic. Already Aristotle proceeded from the fact that the state is a polyunity of its constituent people (citizens), which realizes itself in a multitude of individuals. Since individuals are not equal by nature, because there are always people who are slaves by nature, that is, those who are born to obey, but there are also those who are born to command, insofar as the state becomes organically necessary for people to streamline their lives and relationships together.
A later version of the organic approach to the state was reflected in the teachings of the nineteenth-century English philosopher G. Spencer. G. Spencer defines the state as joint-stock company to protect its members. The state is called upon to protect the conditions for the activities of people, beyond the established limits, which they should not go beyond. This Spencerian doctrine, just like the Aristotelian one, proceeds from the individual, his organic individualistic interests of the state as a necessary instrument for realizing these interests.
Considering the state as a territorial organization of their life directly fused with people, the followers of the organic theory of the state talk about it as a living (biological) organism. They assure that, as in any living organism, where the cells are merged into one continuous physical body, and in the state, individual people form a whole, despite the spatial remoteness from each other. Identifying the state with a living organism, they talk a lot and often about its illnesses, death, rebirth. They compare individual organs and tissues of a biological organism with elements of the state organization of society. (For example, they believe that state institutions are the same nerves of a biological organism.) Consequently, as we see, the organic theory considers the state as a necessary form of organization of society, an administrative committee of public affairs.
Another widely known doctrine of the state is the contractual theory. This is an even more individualistic concept, compared even with the organic theory of the state, since the authors of this doctrine are T. Hobbes, D. Locke, J.-J. Rousseau proceed from the postulate of freedom and equality for all people. According to this doctrine, society, being an aggregate of equal individuals, cannot function without power, and all people agree with this. It is this fact of the consent (agreement) of all individuals that underlies the theory of the social contract, since it is possible to overcome the war of all against all, that is, anarchy, only with the help of an agreement - by carrying out the general will (power) implemented by the state. If people, T. Hobbes wrote, would be able to lead themselves, living according to the natural laws of nature, then they would not need a state. However, people do not have this quality, and therefore each of the people needs a state, or the establishment of an order that would ensure the safety and peaceful existence of all. After all, outside the state, according to T. Hobbes, everyone has an unlimited right to everything, while in the state, the rights of everyone are limited.
Social contract theorists did not explain how the power of the state actually came about, but they showed that state power relies not only on the strength, authority and will of its representatives, but also on the will of subordinates (their consent and approval). In other words, the state power must carry out the general will of the people in the state. The general will, according to J.-J. Rousseau, is not a simple sum of all individual wills (desires). The general will is a unanimous decision of people when discussing an issue, when each individual decides this issue, taking into account the common interests and on behalf of everyone.
So, the theory of the social contract explains the nature of state power by the aspirations of each of the individuals to secure their lives, to create equal conditions for the implementation of their interests. For this, the consent of each and every one of the people is necessary. In this regard, it is argued that all people are equal and the common will of all individuals should be equal to the will of each individual. As you can see, this is almost completely inconsistent with historical reality, since the state power has never been, and is unlikely ever to be, the slave of all its subjects. However, many modern scientists and politicians consider the social contract to be the ideal that a real democratic state should strive for and follow in order to take into account and implement individual interests as much as possible. more their citizens.
Individualism in views on the state was overcome by Hegel. From his point of view, the state is the basis and focus of specific aspects of people's life: law, art, morals, religion, and therefore it is its form of community. The defining content of this form of community is the very spirit of the people, for the real state is animated by this spirit. This means that the state is such an association that has universal power, because in its content and purpose it carries a community of spirit. It is in the state that individuals are destined to lead a universal way of life. As for the private features of people's activities (special satisfaction of needs and interests, special behavior), according to Hegel, this is not the sphere of the state, but of civil society. As you can see, Hegel separates the state - the area of general interests of people and civil society - the area of manifestation of private interests and goals of individuals. He believed that if the state is confused with civil society and the purpose of the state is to ensure and protect property and personal freedom, then this means recognizing the interest of individual people, as such, as the ultimate goal for which they are united. The consequence of such a recognition, Hegel believed, could be a situation where everyone begins to determine purely arbitrarily whether or not to be a member of the state. The state, Hegel emphasized, is an objective spirit, and, consequently, the individual himself is objective, true and moral insofar as he is a member of the state.
7 See: Hegel G. Philosophy of Law. M., 1990. S. 279-315.
Thus, the state, according to Hegel, is the highest stage in the development of the objective spirit, which means the restoration of the unity of individuals and groups of the population, violated in civil society.
K. Marx and F. Engels in their doctrine of the state and its essence, like Hegel, reject the individualistic approach of organic and contractual theories. At the same time, they also criticize the Hegelian idea of the state as a form of community where the single spirit of the people (nation) is concentrated. According to K. Marx and F. Engels, the state is imposed on society, and it is a product of the irreconcilability of class contradictions. The state arises in connection with the split of society into antagonistic classes, and therefore, according to Marxism, it is not a general will, but a machine (apparatus) for suppressing one class by another.
8 See: Lenin V.I. State and Revolution // Lenin V.I. Poly. coll. op. T. 33.
Revealing the essence of the state, Marxists always emphasize that the state is the organization of the economically dominant class into the politically dominant class, and that is why it is an instrument of dictatorship (power) of one class over another, an organ of violence and oppression. The state never exists to appease classes, but only to suppress one class by another. By the way, we note that violence in the activities of state power cannot, of course, be ruled out. M. Weber writes about this, for example, who defines the state as an organization within society that has a monopoly on legitimate violence. The modern English researcher E. Gellner also agrees with this, who also believes that the state is a specialized and concentrated force for maintaining order. However, in Marxism violence is given, perhaps, an absolute (self-sufficient) value. IN AND. Lenin, for example, paid special attention to this issue in his work The State and Revolution, when he analyzed various historical types of states. He carefully examines the mechanism of state power. Along with public authority - the state bureaucracy (authority separated from society), V.I. Lenin identifies as a necessary and extremely important link in the system of any state administration the so-called detachments of armed people (punitive bodies) - the army, police, gendarmerie intelligence, counterintelligence and their appendages - courts, prisons, correctional camps, etc. These punitive bodies, as well as public authorities, according to V.I. Lenin, are separated from society, stand above society and always ensure the strict implementation of the will of the ruling class. Let's say right away that during the development period of V.I. Lenin of these questions (the beginning of the 20th century), these conclusions of his did not differ from the real state of affairs. The state really acted as a committee for managing the affairs of the economically dominant class, and therefore all its might almost entirely served the interests and goals of this class.
In the Marxist theory of the state, much attention is paid to the issues of its development. Marxists, unlike many other schools that consider the state to be an eternal and unchanging entity, always emphasize its historical character. They believe that the state machine, having arisen in connection with the split of society into classes, is, after all, doomed to be scrapped in the course of the socialist revolution. F. Engels in his work "Anti-Dühring" seriously argued that the first act of the new proletarian state - the law on the nationalization of the means of production will be at the same time its last act as a state. Now, instead of managing people, he wrote, there will be management of things. No less optimism was characteristic of V.I. Lenin. In his program of action after the seizure of power by the proletariat, he believed that in the new Soviet state there would be "payment to all officials in the election and replacement of all of them at any time not higher than the average salary of a good worker" (April theses, 1917). At the same time, at a party conference, he proclaims that the Soviet state will be a new type of state without a standing army and without a privileged bureaucracy. He quotes F. Engels: "A society that organizes production in a new way on the basis of a free and equal association of producers will send the state machine to where it will be its true place: to the museum of antiquities, next to the spinning wheel and the bronze axe."
Having come to power, the Bolsheviks could not but admit that the state was indispensable, that a long historical period of existence of the dictatorship of the proletariat was necessary as new form state power. They believed that with the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the essence of the state changes fundamentally, since the main function of the proletarian state is creative - building socialism in the interests of the absolute majority of people. That is why the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat V.I. Lenin no longer considered the state itself, but a semi-state, although at the same time the standing army, the police, the security service, and privileged officials, whose salary was many times higher than that of the average worker, were preserved. However, at the same time, neither V.I. Lenin and his followers never parted with the idea that with the disappearance of classes, the state would also disappear, which, as was usually said, would wither away as unnecessary.
K. Popper, evaluating the Marxist theory of the state in his book "The Open Society and Its Enemies", emphasized that the idea of the state as a political superstructure over the economic basis, which must be broken, is true only for unregulated and legally unlimited capitalism, in which Karl Marx lived . However, this theory is not at all consistent, according to K. Popper, with modern reality, when state power is becoming more and more institutional, that is, an organization based on general legal forms of action for managing the affairs of society. This point is emphasized by many other modern scholars who consider the state political form organization of society that regulates the relations of people through law.
9 Popper K. Open society and its enemies. M., 1992. T. 2. S 189
Such a liberal approach to understanding the state as a form of political organization of society, which has been established today in science, considers it the bearer and executor of a certain general function (public power) that belongs to society and is carried out in order to maintain it. This approach presupposes the existence not only of the state - a public space dominated by the political unity of people based on law, but also of a civil society that is not politically organized. This means that society, acting as a prerequisite for the state, has a complex and mobile structure of its own, and it is a mass society. It is precisely these signs (own structure and mass nature) that are implied by the concept of civil society. Even Hegel, and later P.A. Kropotkin showed that the state did not completely absorb social life even in a pre-capitalist society. P.A. Kropotkin wrote in this regard that almost always there were social forms completely or partially independent of the state and its institutions. Consequently, we can say that modern civil society is a relatively independent entity, separate from the state, which is the sphere of activity of diverse private interests of people.
Hegel, who developed the theory of civil society, believed that the line separating the state and civil society is conditional and relative. He emphasized that, even apart from the state, civil society remains its organic part. In this connection, we note that when Hegel wrote about this, civil society had not really yet sufficiently thoroughly separated from the state. Considering the state as the spirit of the people, Hegel believed that the spirit of the people penetrates (penetrates) almost all relations between people.
As you know, K. Marx used the concept of "civil society" in his early works, but then he abandoned it, considering it "Hegelian rubbish." For K. Marx and his followers, civil society is a bourgeois society. Since the Marxists opposed the bourgeois mode of production and advocated a new socialist society, they reasonably believed that this new society, which is entirely built on public property, does not need any special sphere of private interests and goals, independent of the general interest of the whole society. its individual members. After all, if you recognize civil society, it means agreeing that, firstly, there must be freedom of property (freedom to sell and buy it by private individuals), and secondly, there must be freedom of human rights (his inviolability), freedom of the press, freedom of conscience, etc. It is clear that the Marxists, who argued that only socialism with its social ownership of the means of production represents true freedoms and human rights, considered the concept of civil society superfluous, and therefore the very idea of civil society was rejected by them.
Today in the scientific literature there are two main approaches to the consideration of civil society: 1) civil society as special system relations between people, opposed to the state in any of its forms; 2) civil society as a civilized form of market democratic structure of modern society. If we bring these formulas together, it becomes clear that in addition to the state there is and should be a certain degree of independence of a person from the state (for example, a person should be able to get his bread not only from the hands of the state), that people can have different, not always associated with public space - the state, other private goals and interests of life (for example, obtaining individual education, special medical care, etc.). At the same time, these formulas simultaneously show that under a democratic regime, civil society should optimally come into contact with and interact with the state. The system of private interests of various social communities and individuals of civil society is faced with the need to streamline and harmonize them. It is quite clear that this can be done by the state, which, using unified management mechanisms, becomes an arbiter in emerging conflicts between people, guaranteeing an unbiased solution to their disputes in society.
The process of formation of civil society relations has also begun in modern Russia. True, this process is very difficult, extremely slow and contradictory. People gradually, not without difficulties, are increasingly winning back from the state the opportunity to independently and freely conduct personal and business life. After all, civil society is a space of freedom, and it should be such a space for the personal, family, and business life of every citizen. Even I. Kant believed that only a person who has his own social rights and civil independence can be an active citizen. The existence of a person should not depend on the arbitrariness of the state or someone or something else, it is determined, subject to its own rights and powers, unless, of course, it goes beyond the norms and rules established in this society.
At the same time, people live and act simultaneously in the common space of the state for them. After all, the state is a form of political association of people within a certain territory (state borders). The state is based on the principle of formal equality, the organization of public power of individuals - their citizens. The state and civil society are, as it were, two opposite, but equally necessary and interconnected elements, each of which forms its own special world of human relations. Being a sphere of free (economic and other) interaction of equal citizens, civil society delegates to the state the task of ensuring the integrity of society through the regulation of economic, political and cultural forms of human behavior. With the help of legal and other levers of public power, the state creates conditions for the life of not only society as a whole, but also the activity of each individual. After all, the state is an organization purposefully created by people living together for the purpose of uniform management to solve the common affairs of all citizens of society. That is why the state almost always has the opportunity to politically (in the interests of the whole) regulate the economy, social sphere, culture. Of course, in some places this can be done well. The state and civil society coexist peacefully, mutually complementing each other's actions for the benefit of the people. But sometimes this interaction leads to a certain confrontation, since the state seeks to maintain, and under certain conditions even strengthen its power over society. Of course, cooperation or confrontation in the interaction of civil society and the state is the result of a whole range of socio-economic and political conditions in the life of a people, a country. However, at the same time, of course, we must not forget that state regulation should not be a petty guardianship of everything and everyone, limiting and restricting the activity and initiative of the citizens themselves.
The state has always assumed and carried out various functions of managing and regulating relations in society. It continues to do this at the present time, constantly completing in its "machine" (the system of governing bodies) the missing elements (ministries, departments, committees, etc.).
One of main functions states - the creation of political conditions for the development of social life of people, the protection of the constitutional order (the execution of common affairs, the protection of order, the conduct of foreign policy).
Today, in almost all industrialized countries, in one form or another, there is a regulatory influence of the state on economic life society. Through various political means and legal laws it tries to regulate relations between entrepreneurs and workers, between individual enterprises and monopolies. The state helps its national firms and corporations to penetrate the foreign market, because it is the state that establishes certain import and export duties and taxes. For example, a flexible tax policy pursued by the state allows not only filling the treasury, but also stimulating technical and economic progress. State orders to entrepreneurs make it possible to provide employment for the population and regulate unemployment, as well as adjust the distribution of productive forces. All this indicates that even with full-fledged market relations, state intervention in the functioning of economic enterprises cannot be ruled out.
A necessary function of any state has always been to strengthen its defense capability. Any modern state continues to pay close attention to this activity, since its costs for improving the army and the military-industrial complex as a whole are not decreasing.
An important activity of the modern state is its unified demographic and environmental policy, the regulation of the processes of population development and the protection of people's life and health. The need for this activity of the state is dictated, first of all, by the crisis nature of the current environmental situation in the world. Due to their global nature, environmental and demographic problems can only be solved at the state and interstate levels. That is why these problems acquire a pronounced political character. The state is forced to resort to a number of measures in order to ease the socio-ecological and demographic tension in its own country. Through various medical and educational programs, their financing, the state seeks an appropriate solution to the problems that arise here.
By exerting its influence on society, the state seeks to take on a social function - taking care of its citizens, so that through the provision of constant assistance to them become a social state. Of course, the state is not intended to stoop to the private interest of an individual, considers the outstanding Russian philosopher I.A. Ilyin, but it is called upon to elevate every spiritually true and just interest of an individual citizen to the interest of the entire state. It is clear that there are many such interests in every society: the elderly, the disabled, children. There are many different situations where charitable assistance from the state is essential: victims of natural disasters, fundamental scientific research, promising educational, medical and other programs. If the state takes care of this, if it regularly deals with issues of culture, health, education of its citizens, then it becomes a social state through this. In other words, the most important task of the modern state as a public institution is not only the guarantee of social rights of man and citizen, but also their implementation.
True, there is a slightly different point of view on the question of the need for the state to be social. So, I. Kant was, for example, an opponent of the welfare state. According to I. Kant, concern for the well-being of citizens should not be among the duties of the state. He believed that forced charity leads to despotic paternalism (all-encompassing guardianship) of the state in relation to a person. By the way, this position of I. Kant is shared by many prominent representatives of modern economic liberalism (F. Hayek, M. Friedman and others). They also believe that the intensive and systematic concern of the state for the well-being of citizens contributes to the development of dependency among people, undermines the initiative and extinguishes the entrepreneurial spirit of citizens.
These arguments, of course, are reasonable, and therefore, probably, we can say that the idea of a welfare state is justified only if it does not undermine the principle of freedom of civil society, if state assistance is strictly targeted and tight control is established over all its social expenditures. . At the same time, social protection and state assistance to people are especially necessary in the context of a radical reform of social relations.
The state, all its institutions will be able to effectively fulfill their role in politics, economics, social relations, cultural life society, if they are strictly guided in all their activities by legal (constitutional) norms and laws. The state, whose administrative activity is entirely based on the priority of law in resolving any issue, can be considered legal.
The idea of a legal, more precisely, universal legal state is not new. Carrying a general democratic content, it was actively used in the struggle against despotism and fascist dictatorships. Now it receives a new sound and becomes the guarantor of the implementation of universal human values.
The rule of law is determined not so much by the goals that it sets for itself, but by the ways and forms of its constant activity. For a rule of law state, the main question is not where this activity is directed, but how it is carried out, what means and methods state power relies on, whether it uses violence, terror, or allows freedom and is built on respect for the individual. The spirit of any legal state is expressed by the well-known formula: "What is not forbidden is allowed." This implies that the person himself, and not the state and society, chooses and fulfills the goals and methods of his activity, refusing only those that are prohibited by laws. In a state governed by the rule of law, laws should not limit the scope of human choice, they should not prescribe a strict rule for people: to act this way and not otherwise. After all, if the law prescribes the purpose and mode of activity for people, it ceases to be an abstract norm, and then it becomes at the service of one or another political expediency. Accordingly, the law in this case turns from an end into a means of politics, and then there is no point in talking about the rule of law at all. After all, the principles of the rule of law triumph where there is real opportunity for the manifestation of the whole variety of initiative and creativity of human activity, where reality is not reshaped to please the law, but, on the contrary, life itself dictates adequate norms of law to it.
A democratic rule of law exists inextricably linked with civil society, and one can even say that it is its product. Naturally, such a state and all its governing bodies must unquestioningly fulfill all the rights of the citizens who elected it. The mandatory separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers that exists in a state governed by the rule of law makes it possible not only to carry out their consistent execution, but also to exercise control so that these rights are not violated. Of course, the rule of law (the strict obedience of all to the law) is created by the people themselves. Nothing significant can happen without the participation of citizens, without their knowledge and approval. And it is people who are responsible both for the laws that exist in a given society, and for how they are implemented in society. This applies, of course, to all citizens, but especially to those who must guard the law. The legal state should be absolutely alien to the bureaucratic psychology, in which "if you feel that the law puts an obstacle for you, then, having removed it from the table, put it under you. And then all this, having become invisible, makes it much easier for you in actions." (M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin). Laws in society are obliged to comply with everything, and here there are no and cannot be any exceptions for anyone.
In a state governed by the rule of law, the exercise of rights and freedoms is inseparable from the fulfillment by each citizen of his duty to society. The human personality with its special individual needs and interests always remains a member of society and the state. That is why every citizen must be able to measure their interests with the interests of society, conscientiously fulfill their duties, bear a share of responsibility for the affairs and fate of the state. And it is the responsible approach of every citizen to his duty, organization and discipline that create a reliable basis for the most complete implementation of the principles of a democratic legal state and society.
Historical practice convincingly proves that high Civil responsibility, strengthening of legal social discipline, observance of the laws of the hostel are necessary conditions for the effective development of the state and society, and hence the growth of people's well-being, and more and more complete satisfaction of their material and spiritual needs.
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Chapter I
LAW AND THE STATE
§ 3. The essence of the state
The state was often considered either as a public legal union, or as a political organization of society, or as an apparatus of public power. All these approaches characterize the nature and essence of the state from different angles, but at the same time point to the fundamental factors that together form the state organization - public (political) power and law . It is they who, uniting into one whole, require a special organizational form. Why was it formed? Can modern society do without the state? These are important questions, without answering which the worldview of a modern person cannot be formed.
State- the organization of political power exercised in society by properly formed bodies, elected and appointed officials who act within the framework of officially established powers. State appointment - to conduct the "common affairs" of society, to represent and organize it politically, to ensure the peace and security of citizens, to lead social processes, manage individual areas of life, taking into account the real potential of centralized management and public self-government in the field.
STATE AS PUBLIC (POLITICAL) AUTHORITY
Each state has a set signs . These include, in particular:
- public (political) power;
- territorial organization of the population;
- state sovereignty;
- collection of taxes, etc.
There was a time when the state was viewed as an organization population, occupying certain territory and subject to the same authorities . But this mechanistic formula (state = population + territory + power) did not exist for long, since it did not reflect many of the deep political and legal features of the phenomenon being defined. More acceptable in this respect was contractual interpretation the nature of the state, developed within the framework of some natural law doctrines.
The essence of this interpretation is that the state finds its justification in contract law, i.e. in a natural contract between members of society and the authorities, which exists conditionally. It assumes that people, sacrificing some of their rights, instruct the authorities to carry out the functions of managing society in the interests of the people, pledging, for their part, to financially support the state, pay taxes, and bear duties. The people recognized the right to terminate the contract if the government does not fulfill its obligations, or to replace it, to transfer the reins of government to another government. Supporters of contractual theories completely translated the relationship between the people and the authorities on the basis of rights and contracts , this was a major achievement of that time (XVII-XVIII centuries). These theories, since they had too many conventions, did not survive to our time, but they left a rich legacy of democratic ideas, without which it is difficult to imagine the modern doctrine of the state and modern constitutionalism.
It suffices to point out the clearly formulated idea that the state belongs to the people , which is source state power. All representatives of the state, legislators, judges, officials in the executive apparatus, persons carrying out military and police service - they are all only representatives of the people responsible to him. Here is what was said, for example, in one of the articles of the current constitution of the American state of Massachusetts, adopted in 1780, at the time of the heyday of contractual theories: “Government power is formed for the common good, for the protection, security, welfare and happiness of the people; but not for the benefit, honors, or special interests of any person, family, or class of people; therefore, only the people have the undeniable, inalienable and inviolable right to form governmental power and reform, change or completely abolish it when the interests of protection, security, welfare and happiness of the people so require ”(United States of America. Constitution and Legislative Acts / ed. O. A. Zhidkova. - M., 1993. - P. 51).
It is impossible not to see in these words the "credo" of a democratic state. Recognize the essential connection between public authority and law - means to take a position according to which the right, like power, comes from the people, belongs to them; the people are ultimately the supreme judge of law and the arbiter of its destinies, of course, to the extent that legal development is generally dependent on the human factor. The rule of the people is inseparable from the rule of the people, both of which are components of the sovereignty of the people, democracy. To overcome the alienation of man from political power means to end his alienation both from the state and from law. Based on historical experience, modern people see in democracy, fundamental principle state development, a set of rights belonging to the people, which he must responsibly use.
Historically, state power and law have one destiny, one roots. Who owns state power, from that comes legislation - the most important element of the legal system. As for law as a unified system of social relations, norms and values, it regulates and protects people's behavior means of state power . This is his specifics compared to other normative-regulatory systems, such as morality. The range of means in question is quite wide - means of achieving political consent in society, persuasion and coercion where it is indispensable. The means of political power in the legal sphere are used not only by state bodies, but also by public associations, collectives, and citizens. Moreover, this use is multidirectional in nature - from the state to society, from society to the state, covers wide range public relations, from administrative to self-management.
When they say that the state is political organization of society , they mean mainly its position in the system of political relations that develop between different strata of the population, classes, social groups, between categories of people of different social status living in a certain territory and subject to the same authority.
Above, we talked about approaches for which the people (population) were an integral and homogeneous entity, acting as a party in relations with the authorities. In fact, society, and consequently, the people (population) are socially differentiated, divided into many large and small groups, whose interests and goals do not always coincide, often come into conflict. In the field of politics and political relations, the interests of groups come into contact, collide, differentiate, merge and combine, crowd each other out, fight, reconcile, and so on. Since the emergence of the state, it has always been and is at the center of politics, in it and around it the main political events of a particular era unfold.
Many theorists see in the state a special balancing device , which, thanks to its powerful organization, legal, social and ideological institutions does not allow political differences go beyond the law, controls political life in society, keeping it at some optimal level. But for this the state itself must obviously express the interests of the whole society rather than a separate part of it. Practically it is difficult to achieve ideal , the state rarely manages not to follow the lead of the economically strong classes, elite groups who occupy advantageous positions in a particular area public life. It is the elites, and not the people, who most often act as a party in relations with the state, conduct a dialogue with the government, push their will and their own interests under the guise of public ones.
THE DIFFERENCE OF THE STATE FROM NON-STATE POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS
In civil society, there are political organizations representing its individual parts, various social strata, classes, professional, age and other groups. These are known to all political parties, public associations, all kinds of unions and organizations with specific tasks - to promote the interests of a separate part of the people (population). But there is only one political organization representing the whole society in general, it is a state. It is the core political system society, and it has the main managerial functions, the largest of which are control social processes and regulation public relations. As a leading link in the political system, the state is endowed with several exceptional features that distinguish it from other political organizations of society. As a result of a long historical development, certain types and forms social activities, certain functions that no other political organization, except the state, can perform.
The state is the broadest, most comprehensive political organization on behalf of the whole society, and not any part of it; by its political nature, any state is universal (performs versatile functions); the relationship of the state with each member of society is legally formalized by the institution of citizenship (citizenship), which is not equivalent to membership or participation in any other political organizations.
By virtue of its universality, the state is the only one in society sovereign political organization. This means that the state power is supreme in relation to any politically organized power (local self-government, party government, etc.) inside the country and is independent of any other power outside the country.
State owned monopoly to make laws and thus form legislation, a legal system. Through law and the principle of the rule of law and law, the state determines the boundaries of the behavior of all other political organizations and the political system as a whole.
State owned monopoly on legitimate(legitimate, justified) some form of physical coercion to persons (detention, arrest, imprisonment, etc.) in strict forms of judicial and administrative proceedings, while observing the constitutional and legal guarantees of individual rights.
Only the state has the right have an army and other military formations, maintain prisons and other penitentiary institutions, carry out legal repression, use armed force.
The State is the only political organization legally entitled to demand periodic payments from all citizens(taxes) from their property and income for state and public needs.
The state must prevent attempts by other political organizations to redistribute power in their own interests, to use the colossal possibilities of the state for the prosperity of any one part of the population to the detriment of society as a whole. At the same time, the state has the task of uniting around itself all the links of the political system of society, building correct relations that comply with the law with political parties, trade unions and others public associations, means mass media, non-profit and commercial organizations operating in civil society. The state must be capable of integrating society, successfully linking its parts into a single whole.
Among legal signs states are long-known, world-renowned democratic values, such as stability of constitutional order, rule of law in the hierarchy of normative acts, legal equality in the form of equality of citizens before the law and equality, broad system of rights, freedoms and duties citizens, well-adjusted mechanism legal protection, personality , in particular judicial protection, the highest control over the observance of the constitution, oversight of the execution of laws .
The task of the modern state is to improve the democratic methods of ruling, relying on the entire experience of the existence of civilization. We are talking about the purposeful, systematic and theoretically conscious use of what has long and widely been present in the personal experience of talented leaders, natural organizers who know how to get along excellently with people and build beautiful interhuman relations . Their leadership is based on the ability to achieve a high degree consent between those who are called to exercise power and those to whom this power extends. In art find and strengthen agreement - the secret of power. Where it exists, power achieves its goals naturally and quickly, without any pressure, not to mention coercion, the need for which simply does not arise. The problem is to include the category of consent (consensus) in the concept of political power and seriously study the ways, the practical methods by which consent can and should be established between all participants in power relations.
Of course, political life in any society must be looked at realistically: there have been, are and will be conflicts, disagreements, clashes of opinions and actions in politics, there will always be people who are doubtful, distrustful or insecure, inert, unwilling to take on the burden of decision-making, etc. P. It is important to consciously and methodically ensure the priority of domination based on consent, cooperation, strengthening of creative amateur principles in collectives, in all social cells.
Ways to achieve broad agreement in politics are generally known: from a formal point of view, this improvement of legally binding procedures joint development of political decisions, absolute expansion of the circle of people involved in this development; from a content point of view, linkage, combination of diverse social interests adequately expressed in a political decision.
It is necessary to turn from pressure, command methods of ruling to methods based on in agreement , which does not arise from scratch, but on the basis of taking into account and linking the vital interests of all participants in power relations, the transition to management interests and through the interests . Therefore, when developing political decisions, it is necessary to seriously and deeply study various social interests, so that they can be combined so that a person, realizing his own goals, can thereby promote collective, social goals and, conversely, be personally interested in the most complete implementation of the interests of the collective, the state and society.
The people who carry out political power, makes the state legal, linking it with certain forms of activity to regulate and protect the free behavior of people. In modern legal understanding, the primordial meaning of law, which made its way through its historical development in spite of all obstacles and arbitrariness, must be expressed - ensuring and protecting human freedom , defining its capabilities, boundaries and guarantees. Almost everything can be comprehended through the idea of freedom. legal problems, in its space, questions about responsibility, duties, discipline, the justified use of coercive measures, and many others arise and receive the only correct solution. Without turning law into an effective instrument of freedom and free creativity of people, without making it a factor in the protection of self-government, individual and collective initiative, it is difficult to count on the successful fulfillment of the tasks of the rule of law.
ACTIVITIES OF THE STATE APPLICATION AS A WAY OF EXERCISING PUBLIC POWER
The primary genetic feature of the state - centralized public authority (directed by a single will a special layer of people who professionally manage society) - is expressed in the activities of the state apparatus, which initially performs the functions regulation and management society. The regulation is higher authorities states set standards , rules of conduct, laws for streamlining social relations on the basis of widely proclaimed goals and ideologies. Public administration there is organized expedient impact on social processes , involving the executive-administrative, control-supervisory, coordinating and other activities of state bodies. The entire volume of regulatory and managerial functions, their corresponding powers are distributed among the three authorities of the state (where such a division exists) - legislative, executive and judicial, as well as bodies that ensure the execution of power functions. Adapting to historical reality, the state apparatus is in a state of continuous rationalization through the distribution and redistribution of power, competence, structural changes, and the search for appropriate ways to solve state problems.
So under state apparatus understand organ system through which state power is exercised, the main functions are performed and the goals and tasks facing the state are achieved.
1) What are the characteristics of any state? 2) What is public authority? How does it manifest itself? 3) What does state sovereignty mean? 4) What is the essence and significance of the contractual theory of the origin of the state? 5) How are the state and law related? 6) What is the difference between the state and non-state political organizations? 7) What is the essence of the state? What is its main purpose?
1. Based on the studied knowledge of history and social science, determine how power in primitive society differed from state power.
2. Expand on specific examples the essential features of the state.
3. Based on the text of the paragraph, previously studied social science knowledge, make and fill in the table in your notebook " Distinctive features states from non-state political organizations”.
4. Find in the text of the paragraph a fragment that reveals the connection between public authority and law in a democratic state. Please comment on this passage.
5. Based on the definition of the state apparatus placed in the text of the paragraph, identify the features of this concept and characterize them.
6. As a multilingual country, Switzerland has four official languages (including Romansh).
Costa Rica does not have an army, and in Panama, a constitutional amendment in 1991 prohibited having an army for "eternal times."
Express your opinion: are the main features of the state, as sometimes claimed, a single language of communication and the presence of an army? Give arguments to support your answer.
"Only a strong state provides freedom to its citizens."
J.-J. Rousseau (1712-1778), French educator
"Everyone who thinks about the art of managing people is convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of the youth."
Aristotle (384-322 BC), ancient Greek philosopher
The state is a political organization of society that has an apparatus of power.
The state serves society, solves the tasks facing society as a whole, as well as tasks that reflect the interests of individual social groups, territorial communities of the country's population. The solution of these problems of the organization and life of society is the expression of the social purpose of the state. Changes in the life of the country, society, for example, industrialization, urbanization, population growth, put forward new tasks for the state in the field of social policy, in developing measures to organize the life of society in new conditions.
Among the most important tasks, in the resolution of which the social purpose of the state is expressed, is ensuring the integrity of society, fair cooperation of various social groups, timely overcoming of acute contradictions in the life of society and its constituent communities and groups.
The social purpose and active role of the state are expressed in ensuring a stable social order, scientifically based use of nature, in protecting the environment of human life and activity. And the most important thing in describing the social purpose of the state is to ensure a decent human life, the well-being of the people.
The ideas of the social purpose of the state were concretized and developed in the concept (theory) of the "welfare state". Provisions on the welfare state are enshrined in a number of constitutions of democratic states.
The democratic welfare state is called upon to provide all citizens with constitutional rights and freedoms. Ensure not only material well-being, but also cultural rights and freedoms. A welfare state is a country with a developed culture. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted on December 16, 1966, states that the ideal of a free human being, free from fear and want, can only be realized if conditions are created under which everyone can enjoy his economic , social and cultural rights, as well as civil and political rights.
In modern conditions in Russia, the urgent tasks in the social policy of the state are to ensure the right to work and measures to overcome unemployment, labor protection, improve its organization and payment. It is necessary to multiply and improve measures to strengthen and state support family, motherhood and childhood. Social policy needs to stimulate assistance to the elderly, the disabled, strengthening health care, and other social institutions and services. big tasks The social policy of the state is in the field of regulating the demographic processes of society, stimulating the birth rate, and raising the role of women in the life of the state's society.
(V.D. Popkov)
Show answer
The correct answer must contain the following elements:
1) the answer to the first question: the political organization of society, which has a power apparatus;
2) the answer to the second question: a system of institutions that has supreme power in a certain territory.
Elements of the answer can be given in other formulations that are close in meaning.
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