The state is a special organization of political public power that has a special apparatus or mechanism for managing society. The state is an organization of political power that manages society and provides it with

Political public power is the defining feature of the state. The term “power” means the ability to influence in the desired direction, to subordinate one’s will, to impose it on those under one’s control. Such relationships are established between the population and a special layer of people who govern it - they are otherwise called officials, bureaucrats, managers, the political elite, and so on. The power of the political elite is institutionalized, that is, it is exercised through bodies and institutions united into a single hierarchical system. The apparatus or mechanism of the state is the material expression of state power. The most important state bodies include legislative, executive, and judicial bodies, but a special place in the state apparatus has always been occupied by bodies that carry out coercive, including punitive functions - the army, police, gendarmerie, prisons and correctional labor institutions. A distinctive feature of state power from other types of power (political, party, family) is its publicity or universality, universality, the generally binding nature of its instructions.

The sign of publicity means, firstly, that the state is a special power that does not merge with society, but stands above it. Secondly, state power outwardly and officially represents the entire society. Universality of state power means its ability to resolve any issues affecting common interests. The stability of state power, its ability to make decisions and implement them, depends on its legitimacy. Legitimacy of power means, firstly, its legality, that is, establishment by means and methods that are recognized as fair, proper, legal, moral, secondly, its support by the population and, thirdly, its international recognition.

Only the state has the right to issue normative legal acts that are binding for everyone.

Without law and legislation, the state is unable to effectively lead society. Law allows the authorities to make their decisions generally binding on the population of the entire country in order to direct the behavior of the people in the right direction. Being the official representative of the entire society, the state, in necessary cases, demands legal norms with the help of special bodies - courts, administrations, and so on.

Only the state collects taxes and fees from the population.

Taxes are mandatory and gratuitous payments collected within predetermined periods in certain amounts. Taxes are necessary to maintain government bodies, law enforcement agencies, the army, to maintain the social sphere, to create reserves in case of emergencies and to carry out other general affairs.

Main features states are: the presence of a certain territory, sovereignty, a broad social base, a monopoly on legitimate violence, the right to collect taxes, the public nature of power, the presence of state symbols.

The state performs internal functions, including economic, stabilization, coordination, social, etc. There are also external functions, the most important of which are ensuring defense and establishing international cooperation.

According to the form of government, states are divided into monarchies (constitutional and absolute) and republics (parliamentary, presidential and mixed). Depending on the form of government, unitary states, federations and confederations are distinguished.

State

Concept and characteristics of the state

The state is a special organization of political power that has a special apparatus (mechanism) for managing society to ensure its normal functioning.

In historical terms, the state can be defined as a social organization that has ultimate power over all people living within the boundaries of a certain territory, and has as its main goal the solution of common problems and the provision of the common good while maintaining, above all, order.

Structurally, the state appears as an extensive network of institutions and organizations representing three branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial.

State power is sovereign, i.e. supreme, in relation to all organizations and individuals within the country, as well as independent, independent in relation to other states. The state is the official representative of the entire society, all its members, called citizens.

Taxes collected from the population and loans received from them are used to maintain the state apparatus of power.

The state is a universal organization, distinguished by a number of unparalleled attributes and characteristics.

Signs of the state

Coercion - state coercion is primary and has priority over the right to coerce other entities within a given state and is carried out by specialized bodies in situations determined by law.

Sovereignty - the state has the highest and unlimited power in relation to all individuals and organizations operating within historically established boundaries.

Universality - the state acts on behalf of the entire society and extends its power to the entire territory.

The characteristics of a state are the territorial organization of the population, state sovereignty, tax collection, and lawmaking. The state subjugates the entire population living in a certain territory, regardless of administrative-territorial division.

Attributes of the state

Territory is defined by the boundaries separating the spheres of sovereignty of individual states.

The population is the subjects of the state, over whom its power extends and under whose protection they are.

The apparatus is a system of organs and the presence of a special “class of officials” through which the state functions and develops. The publication of laws and regulations that are binding on the entire population of a given state is carried out by the state legislative body.

Concept of state

The state appears at a certain stage of development of society as a political organization, as an institution of power and management of society. There are two main concepts of the emergence of the state. In accordance with the first concept, the state arises in the course of the natural development of society and the conclusion of an agreement between citizens and rulers (T. Hobbes, J. Locke). The second concept goes back to the ideas of Plato. She rejects the first and insists that the state arises as a result of the conquest (conquest) by a relatively small group of warlike and organized people (tribe, race) of a significantly larger but less organized population (D. Hume, F. Nietzsche). Obviously, in the history of mankind, both the first and second methods of the emergence of the state took place.

As already mentioned, at first the state was the only political organization in society. Subsequently, during the development of the political system of society, other political organizations (parties, movements, blocs, etc.) arise.

The term "state" is usually used in a broad and narrow sense.

In a broad sense, the state is identified with society, with a specific country. For example, we say: “states that are members of the UN”, “states that are members of NATO”, “the state of India”. In the examples given, the state refers to entire countries along with their peoples living in a certain territory. This idea of ​​the state dominated in antiquity and the Middle Ages.

In a narrow sense, the state is understood as one of the institutions of the political system that has supreme power in society. This understanding of the role and place of the state is justified during the period of formation of the institutions of civil society (XVIII - XIX centuries), when the political system and social structure of society become more complex, and the need arises to separate the actual state institutions and institutions from society and other non-state institutions of the political system.

The state is the main socio-political institution of society, the core of the political system. Possessing sovereign power in society, it controls the lives of people, regulates relations between various social strata and classes, and is responsible for the stability of society and the safety of its citizens.

The state has a complex organizational structure, which includes the following elements: legislative institutions, executive and administrative bodies, the judicial system, public order and state security bodies, armed forces, etc. All this allows the state to perform not only the functions of managing society, but also the functions of coercion (institutionalized violence) in relation to both individual citizens and large social communities (classes, estates, nations). Thus, during the years of Soviet power in the USSR, many classes and estates were virtually destroyed (bourgeoisie, merchant class, wealthy peasantry, etc.), entire peoples were subjected to political repression (Chechens, Ingush, Crimean Tatars, Germans, etc.).

Signs of the state

The state is recognized as the main subject of political activity. From a functional point of view, the state is the leading political institution that manages society and ensures order and stability in it. From an organizational point of view, the state is an organization of political power that enters into relations with other subjects of political activity (for example, citizens). In this understanding, the state is seen as a set of political institutions (courts, social security system, army, bureaucracy, local authorities, etc.) responsible for organizing social life and financed by society.

The features that distinguish the state from other subjects of political activity are as follows:

The presence of a certain territory - the jurisdiction of a state (the right to hold court and resolve legal issues) is determined by its territorial borders. Within these boundaries, the power of the state extends to all members of society (both those who have citizenship of the country and those who do not);

Sovereignty - the state is completely independent in internal affairs and in the conduct of foreign policy;

Variety of resources used - the state accumulates the main power resources (economic, social, spiritual, etc.) to exercise its powers;

The desire to represent the interests of the entire society - the state acts on behalf of the entire society, and not individuals or social groups;

Monopoly on legitimate violence - the state has the right to use force to enforce laws and punish their violators;

The right to collect taxes - the state establishes and collects various taxes and fees from the population, which are used to finance government bodies and solve various management problems;

The public nature of power - the state ensures the protection of public interests, not private ones. When implementing public policy, there are usually no personal relationships between the authorities and citizens;

The presence of symbols - the state has its own signs of statehood - a flag, coat of arms, anthem, special symbols and attributes of power (for example, a crown, a scepter and an orb in some monarchies), etc.

In a number of contexts, the concept of “state” is perceived as close in meaning to the concepts of “country”, “society”, “government”, but this is not so.

Country is primarily a cultural and geographical concept. This term is usually used when talking about area, climate, natural areas, population, nationalities, religions, etc. The state is a political concept and denotes the political organization of that other country - its form of government and structure, political regime, etc.

Society is a broader concept than the state. For example, a society can be above the state (society as all of humanity) or pre-state (such as a tribe and a primitive clan). At the present stage, the concepts of society and state also do not coincide: public power (say, a layer of professional managers) is relatively independent and isolated from the rest of society.

The government is only a part of the state, its highest administrative and executive body, an instrument for the exercise of political power. The state is a stable institution, while governments come and go.

General characteristics of the state

Despite all the diversity of types and forms of state formations that arose earlier and currently exist, it is possible to identify common features that are, to one degree or another, characteristic of any state. In our opinion, these signs were presented most fully and convincingly by V.P. Pugachev.

These signs include the following:

public power, separated from society and not coinciding with social organization; the presence of a special layer of people exercising political control of society;

a certain territory (political space), delineated by borders, to which the laws and powers of the state apply;

sovereignty - supreme power over all citizens living in a certain territory, their institutions and organizations;

monopoly on the legal use of force. Only the state has “legal” grounds for limiting the rights and freedoms of citizens and even depriving them of their lives. For these purposes, it has special power structures: army, police, courts, prisons, etc. P.;

the right to collect taxes and fees from the population that are necessary for the maintenance of government bodies and material support of state policy: defense, economic, social, etc.;

mandatory membership in the state. A person acquires citizenship from the moment of birth. Unlike membership in a party or other organizations, citizenship is a necessary attribute of any person;

a claim to represent the entire society as a whole and to protect common interests and goals. In reality, no state or other organization is able to fully reflect the interests of all social groups, classes and individual citizens of society.

All functions of the state can be divided into two main types: internal and external.

When performing internal functions, the activities of the state are aimed at managing society, at coordinating the interests of various social strata and classes, and at preserving its powers of power. Carrying out external functions, the state acts as a subject of international relations, representing a certain people, territory and sovereign power.

The general theory of state and law is a general theoretical legal science. The state and law are inextricably linked. Law is a set of rules of conduct that are beneficial to the state and approved by it through the adoption of legislation. The state cannot do without law, which serves its state and ensures its interests. In turn, law cannot arise outside of the state, since only state legislative bodies can adopt generally binding rules of conduct requiring their enforcement. The state introduces enforcement measures to comply with the rules of law.

The study of state and law should begin with the concept and origin of the state.

The state is a special organization of political power that has a special apparatus (mechanism) for managing society to ensure its normal functioning. The main features of the state are the territorial organization of the population, state sovereignty, tax collection, and lawmaking. The state subjugates the entire population living in a certain territory, regardless of administrative-territorial division.

State power is sovereign, i.e. supreme in relation to all organizations and individuals within the country, as well as independent and independent in relation to other states. The state acts as the official representative of the entire society, all its members, called citizens.

Taxes collected from the population and loans received from them are used to maintain the state apparatus of power. The publication of laws and regulations binding on the population of a given state is carried out by the state legislative body.

The emergence of the state was preceded by a primitive communal system, in which the basis of production relations was public ownership of the means of production. The transition from self-government of primitive society to state government lasted centuries. In different historical regions, the collapse of the primitive communal system and the emergence of the state occurred in different ways depending on historical conditions.

The first states were slaveholding. Along with the state, law also arose as an expression of the will of the ruling class.

There are several historical types of states and law - slave, feudal, bourgeois. A state of the same type can have different forms of government, government structure, and political regime.

Under form of government refers to the organization of the highest bodies of state power (the order of their formation, relationships, the degree of participation of the masses in their formation and activities).

Secondly, the state is a special organization of political power that has a special apparatus (mechanism) for managing society to ensure its normal functioning. The mechanism of the state is the material expression of state power. Through a whole system of its bodies and institutions, the state directly manages society, consolidates and implements a certain regime of political power, and protects the inviolability of its borders.

Parts of the state mechanism, diverse in their structure and tasks, are united by a common purpose: to ensure the protection and functioning of society and its members in accordance with the law. The most important government bodies, which to one degree or another were inherent in all historical types and varieties of the state, include legislative, executive and judicial. A special place in the mechanism of the state has always been occupied by bodies that carry out coercive, including punitive functions: the army, police, gendarmerie, prisons and correctional labor institutions.

The mechanism of the state is not a constant. At various stages of social development, state bodies change structurally and solve problems that are different in their specific content. However, these changes and differences do not exclude common elements that are inherent in the mechanism of any state.

Thirdly, the state organizes public life on a legal basis. Legal forms of organizing the life of society are inherent specifically in the state. Without law and legislation, the state is unable to effectively lead society and ensure the unconditional implementation of decisions made. Among the many political organizations, only the state, through its competent authorities, issues decrees that are binding on the entire population of the country. Being the official representative of the entire society, the state, if necessary, enforces the requirements of legal norms with the help of its special bodies (courts, administration and others).

Fourthly, the state is a sovereign organization of power. This distinguishes it from other political formations of society.

State sovereignty- this is a property of state power that is expressed in the supremacy and independence of a given state in relation to any other authorities within the country, as well as in the sphere of interstate relations in strict compliance with generally accepted norms of international law.

Sovereignty is a collective sign of a state. It concentrates all the most essential features of the state organization of society. The independence and supremacy of state power is specifically expressed in the following:

in universality - only decisions of state power apply to the entire population and public organizations of a given country;

in the prerogative - the possibility of canceling and invalidating any illegal manifestation of another public power;

have special means of influence that no other public organization has.

The supremacy of state power does not at all exclude its interaction with non-state political organizations in resolving various issues of state and public life. In the sovereignty of the state, the sovereignty of the people, in whose interests the state governs society, finds its political and legal expression.

Under certain conditions, the sovereignty of the state coincides with the sovereignty of the people. The sovereignty of the people means the supremacy of the people, their right to decide their own destiny, fundamental issues of state and social development, to shape the direction of the policy of their state, the composition of its bodies, and to control the activities of state power.

The concept of state sovereignty is closely related to the concept of national sovereignty. National sovereignty means the right of nations to self-determination, even to the point of secession and formation of an independent state. In multinational states formed through the voluntary association of nations, the sovereignty exercised by this complex state cannot be the sovereignty of the nation alone.

These are the most general features of the state, characterizing it as a specific organization of society. The signs themselves do not yet provide a complete picture of the essence and social purpose of the state in its historical development. With the improvement of social life, of man himself, with the growth of his social, political and moral maturity, the state also changes. Its general features, while remaining unchanged in principle, are filled with new, more rational content. The essence of the state is enriched, obsolete ones die out and more progressive functions and forms of its activity appear, corresponding to the objective needs of social development.

The essence of the state as a social phenomenon is, figuratively speaking, a multifaceted core, which consists of many interconnected internal and external aspects, giving it the qualitative certainty of a universal control system. To reveal the essence of the state means to identify the main thing that determines its objective necessity in society, to understand why society cannot exist and develop without the state.

The most important, qualitatively constant feature of the state is that it, in all its varieties, always acts as the only organization of political power that governs the entire society. In a scientific and practical sense, all power is management. State power is a special type of management, characterized by the fact that, along with colossal organizational capabilities, it also has the right to use violent coercion to carry out state orders.

The state arises as a class organization of political power. This position has been directly or indirectly proven by world science and historical practice. Indeed, the slave state in its essence was a political organization of slave owners. Although to some extent it protected the interests of all free citizens. The feudal state is a body of political power primarily of feudal lords, as well as other wealthy classes (merchants, artisans, clergy). The capitalist state in the first (classical) stages of its development acted as an organ for expressing the interests of the bourgeoisie.

Analysis of certain economic and social patterns of the emergence and functioning of the state, mainly from a class position, made it possible to give a “universal” definition of the essence of the state, covering all historical types of states, including modern ones.

The peculiarity of the historical types of states preceding modernity is that they mainly expressed the economic interests of the minority (slave owners, feudal lords, capitalists).

Thus, due to objective reasons, the state turns primarily into the organizing force of society, which expresses and protects the personal and general interests of its members.

Private property, which has become an objective factor in the emergence of the state, is also a constant companion in the process of its development. As social life improves, forms of property, including private property, become more diverse. The property of the minority gradually turns into the property of the majority. As a result of revolutionary and evolutionary transformations of property relations, the socio-economic essence of the state, its goals and objectives also changes. With the formation of state, collective, joint-stock, cooperative, farmer, individual and other forms of ownership, private property, that is, individual property, began to acquire new qualitative features.

Social purpose of the state flows from it essence. What is essence state, such is the nature of its activities, such are the goals and objectives that it sets for itself. We can talk about the social purpose of the state in general, abstracting from those historically transitory tasks that it solved at one or another stage of the development of society. Attempts to determine the social purpose of the state from a historical perspective were made by thinkers of various eras and various scientific directions. Thus, Plato and Aristotle believed that the purpose of any state is affirmation of morality. Later, this view of the social purpose of the state was supported and developed by Hegel. Representatives of the contractual theory of the origin of the state saw in its existence common good(Grotius); general security(Hobbes); general freedom(Rousseau). Lassalle also saw the main task of the state in development and implementation of human freedom

So, views on the social purpose of the state are determined by those objective conditions that are characteristic of a given level of development of society. As they change, views on the social purpose of the state also change.

At the same time, the content of state activities in certain historical periods is significantly influenced by subjective factors. These include, first of all, the truth of a certain theory, its universality, the ability to foresee a historical perspective, possible changes in social life, and its implementation in the practice of state building.

While still the main governing system of society, the state is beginning to increasingly turn into an organ for overcoming social contradictions, taking into account and coordinating the interests of various groups of the population, and implementing decisions that would be supported by various social strata. In the activities of the state, such important general democratic institutions as the separation of powers, the rule of law, transparency, pluralism of opinions, and the high role of the court begin to come to the fore.

The role of the state in the international arena is also changing significantly, as is its external activity, which requires mutual concessions, compromises, and reasonable agreements with other states.

All this gives grounds to characterize the modern civilized state as a means of social compromise (by content) and as a rule of law state (according to form).