Theories of State
image source: getty |
Liberal And Neo-Liberal Theory Of State
Without Going Into Too Many Details, Liberalism Can Be Explained As A Worldview That Gives Central Importance To The Idea Of Choice, Using This Choice In Various Fields Such As Marriage, Education, Enterprise, Work And Profession And Of Course Political Cases To Be Done.
Hobbes In His Book 'leviathan' Explicitly Acknowledged The Development Of A New Form Of Power, Public Power, Which Is Characterized By Stability And Sovereignty. Hobbes Opens His Account By Describing Human Nature As Saying That He Always Seeks 'more Intense Pleasure' And Is Therefore Characterized By Restlessness And The Desire To Maximize Power. It Famously Turns Human Society Into A 'War Of All Against All'. The Idea That People Can Come To Respect And Trust Each Other And Cooperate And Honor Their Promises And Contracts Seems Distant To Hobbes. This Is What He Describes As The State Of Nature, Here Life Becomes To Quote Him 'Bad, Short And Cruel'.
Thomas Hobbes Regards The State As Paramount In Social And Political Life. According To Him, It Is The State Which Gives Opportunity To The Individuals To Live In A Civilized Society. The Miserable Life In The State Of Nature Is Replaced By The Emergence Of The State. After This A Civilized Society Is Formed.
Locke Is Unwilling To Accept The Idea Of an Absolute Sovereign, And This Is A Major Point Of Departure From Which He Establishes His Theory Of The State. For Locke The State Exists As An Instrument To Protect The Life, Liberty And Property Of Citizens. Locke, Like Hobbes, Saw The Establishment Of The Political World Before The Existence Of Individuals Endowed With Natural Rights To Property, Including Life, Liberty And Property.
Locke Clearly Stated That Individuals Do Not Transfer All Their Rights To The State, And Any Rights That Are Transferred Are Only On Condition That The State Fulfills Its Original Purpose Of Protection Of Life, Liberty And Property Of The Individual. Follows. It Is One Of The Central Ideas Of Liberalism Today And Central To Our Understanding Of The State.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), And James Mill (1773-1836). On Their Account The State Would Be Expected To Ensure That The Conditions Necessary For Individuals To Pursue Their Interests Without Risk Of Political Interference, To Participate Freely In Economic Transactions, - To Provide And Personally Appropriate Resources Are Required.
The Maximization Of Pleasure For The Maximum Number According To The Principle Of Utility, To Which Both Bentham And Mill Subscribed. This Argument Was Explicitly Advocating For A Limited State On The Grounds That The Scope And Power Of The State Should Be Limited In Order To Ensure That The Collective Good Is Free To Compete And Pursue Utility Without State Interference. Can Be Felt Through Individuals.
While John Stuart Mill Acknowledged The Need For Some Regulation And Interference In The Individual's Life, He Sought Barriers To Arbitrary And Selfish Interference. To Ensure All This, Mill Proposed A Representative Democracy. However, Despite A Firm Commitment To Freedom And Democracy, Joe Mille Also Believed That Those With The Most Knowledge And Skills Should Have More Votes Than The Rest, Essentially Meaning It Would Be That Those With The Most Assets And Privileges Would Have More Votes Than The Rest.
Marxist Theory Of State
It Tries To Correlate The Forces Of Socio-Economic Trends In The Society With The Organized Power Structure I. E. The State. According To This Theory The Interaction Of Socio-Economic Forces Determines The State Structure. The State Is An Artificial Structure Built Upon Society. It Will Collapse When Hitherto Suppressed Social Classes Rise In Rebellion And Seize Power. This Theory Was Developed By Marx, Engels And Lenin
According To Hegel, "What Is Real Is Rational And That Which Is Rational Is Real. " In Order To Reach The 'Real', The Process Of Elimination Must Begin In Order To Eliminate The False. He Called It Dialectics. There Are Three Phases Of Dialectics: Thesis, Antithesis And Synthesis. An Accepted Assumption Can Be A Thesis At Any Time. There Is Immediate Opposition To This. A Synthesis Will Soon Emerge, Trying To Find A Higher Truth, Which Contains The Good Elements From Both Beliefs. This Synthesis Would Over Time Become Another Thesis, Challenged By A New Opposition, Leading To A New Synthesis. This Process Continues Till That Stage Until The Final And Absolute Truth Is Discovered.
For Example, If We Consider An Individual As A Thesis Then The Family Will Be Antithetical, And The Community Will Be The Synthesis. Then The Community That Has Become A Thesis Will Be Challenged By The Interests Of The Village. In Contrast To Villages, This May Lead To A New Synthesis Of A Higher Group.
Marxists See The State As An Instrument Of Exploitation. It Is Based On Coercion, Not Consent; It's Not Natural. It Is An Artificial Creation By The Wealthy Classes To Protect Their Interests. Poor People Have No Role In The Affairs Of The State. In Fact They Have To Fight Against It And Destroy The Power Structure Of Exploitation. The State Is Not Neutral. It Is Biased Towards The Interests Of The Wealthy Who Use It To Perpetuate Economic Domination And Exploitation.
The State Which Has Been Acting As An Agent Of The Rich Till Now, Will Work For The Poor. The Workforce That Is Now Under The Control Of The Electrical Equipment Will Use The Power For The Leveling Process. The Abolition Of Private Property Would Result In The Nationalization Of All Industries, Collective Agriculture, And The Centralization Of Economic And Political Power. Each Will Contribute His Power To Social Wealth And Get What Is Necessary For Him For A Decent Life. The Process Of Change Begins In Society. With The Abolition Of Private Property, Economic Equality Is Achieved, The Separation Of Individuals Is Eliminated. A New Spirit Of Social Cooperation Emerges. Class Antagonism And Class War Are A Thing Of The Past. A Society Based On Cooperation – One For All And One For All – Will Be Born. A New Person Is Born. There Is No Need For Laws Or Law Enforcing Bodies In Such A System. The Society Which Has Achieved Socialism Does Not Need Strict Laws, Police, Courts Etc.
Critics: Modern Critics Like Robert Dahl Point Out Many Inconsistencies In Marx's Idea Of the State. Normally A State – The Democratic State – Operates On Three Projections.
(I) There Are Always Conflicting Interests In All Societies. Not All Classes Are Necessarily Conflicts.
(Ii) The State Resolves These Conflicts On The Principle Of Majority Interests;
(Iii) Political Majority Will Never Be A Monopoly Of A Single Group, With The Freedom To Form Political Parties And To Hold Elections From Time To Time In A Free Environment. All These Conjectures Are Absent In Marxist State Theory.
Pluralist Theory Of State:
Pluralism As A Concept Is Of Great Importance In Political Science. As This Term Denotes It Opposes The "Singular" Aspect Of A Given Set Of Ideas. There Can Be More Than One Opinion On Any Aspect Of Social Thought. Truth Is Never The Monopoly Of Any One Point Of View . Truth Was To Be Discovered By Studying The Pluralistic Aspects Of The Given Idea. No Opinion Is Completely True Or False. Each Contains An Element Of Truth Or Partial Truth.
While Liberals Welcome The Pluralistic Nature Of Society, Fascists And Communists Reject This Characteristic As A Disruptive Force. Fascists In Particular Argue That Pluralism Ruins The State Structure, With Individual Loyalty Divided Into Various Associations In Society.
Pluralists See The State As A Federation In Society. We Have Primary And Secondary Federations, The State Being A Secondary Federation With A Greater Share Of Power Than Other Federations. It Is Not A Result Of The Contract. It Has Developed Along With Other Social Groups. He Is Neither Above The Society Nor Outside The Society. It Is In Society.
Pluralism Is Basically An Attack On The Absolutist Principle Of The State. Austin Provided The Legal Basis For His Absolutism In His Monotheistic Doctrine Or The Legal Theory Of Sovereignty. According To Him The Sovereignty Of The State Can Be Absolute, Unlimited, Indivisible, Indivisible And Clearly Positioned. Pluralist Theory Is A Direct Attack On All These Issues. Power Or Sovereignty Can Never Be Absolute. There Are Many Limitations To Its Exercise And Effective Use. No State Can Stop The Natural Forces From Working. Customs, Traditions That Are Cultural Beliefs That Will Act As Natural Limits On The Exercise Of State Power
Critics Of Pluralism And Neo-Pluralist Thought
Many Critics Believe That The Pluralistic Theory Of The State Is Unsuitable For Developing Countries, Where The State Needs To Play A Major Role In Changing The Socioeconomic Conditions Of Its People. Leaving These Things To A Few Unions Will Only Spoil The Life Of The Unorganized Sections Of The Society. C. Wright Mill Argued How Even In A Developed Democracy Like America, Not All Groups Are On Equal Footing. Some Groups Are More Resourceful, Have Very Close Access To Policy Making Machinery And Get What They Want. While Others May Be Far Behind. It's Like Social Darwinism: Survival Of The Fittest. There Would Be No Social Justice In Such A System. When The Issues Are Not The Same, The Pluralistic Principle Of The State Does Not Survive.
Postcolonial Theory Of State:
Postcolonial Theory Is A Phrase That Refers To Theoretical And Critical Observations Of The Former Colonies Of Western Powers And How They Relate To And Interact With The Rest Of The World. These Theories Are Of Great Interest To The Colonists And The Cultures Of The Colonists. Postcolonial Theory Critically Examines What Happens When Two Cultures Collide And One Of Them Ideologically Superior Itself And Assumes Dominance And Control Over The Other.
Feminist Theory Of The State:
Feminists Of Liberal Persuasion See No Harm In Using The State As An Ally To Engage With The State And Fight For Their Rights. They See The State As A Neutral Institution From Which Women Have Been Excluded For So Long And Into Which They Should Enter.
Radical Feminists Will Continue To Urge Such A State To Be Abandoned. While This Is Not A Very Widely Shared View, Most Feminists Would Argue That They Need To Engage With The State As Women, Challenging The State's Spurious Claims Of Gender Neutrality And Asserting The Legitimacy Of Female Voices. They Wanted To.
Skeptical Marxist Feminist Attitudes Toward The Welfare State Are Based On The Belief That The Benign Use Of The State To Provide Welfare For Its Citizens Represents The Most Cost-Effective Way Of Regenerating The Labor Force.
Comments
Post a Comment