STATE AND ITS THEORIES
A State is a social kind of society which formulates and enforces laws. It is a product of political organisation of men. Salmond explains State as ‘A society of men established for maintenance of order and justice within a determined by way of force’. There are mainly four elements for the State. These elements are also known as ingredients. They are the Government, Sovereignty, Territory and Large population. The Government is the authority which controls the people and do all the actions that provide welfare of the community. It may be appointed by the director or through people as their representatives. These are by means of elections. There are three main branches of Government namely, Legislative, Executive and Judiciary. Each of them has separate powers and work independently, however, an action can be implemented if they are combine and work together. But they have no controlling powers on one another. Sovereignty is the second element, there should be an organisation in the state. The organisation of State must be stable and permanent. It must receive habitual obedience from its Subjects. The third element is territory, the state should have a definite territory of the land and they should have their possession and control over it. Then fourth element is population, there should be a considerable amount of population should be there for the formation of the state.
Theories of Origin of State:
The origin of State is explained in two Theories. They are Evolutionary theory and Social contract or Compact theory. We can see a brief notes on them.
Evolutionary theory:
There are two approaches for this theory.
Matriarchal Theory:
This theory was proposed by Molennan and Morgan. In
Some places in India and Australia, the life discloses the theory of Mother’s right and mother’s relationship. There were scarcity for women here because they practised female infanticide. So the women were married to more than one man. This is known as polyandry. The husband became part of wife’s family and the descent was traced through the mother. This system gave the wife and the mother social standing. Thus the matriarchal relationship of family by expansion and continuation formed the state in an ancient society. According to Maclner, the family property, the customary law, the war and the conquest formed the state. The main criticism against this theory was that polyandry was confined only to certain races and not universal.
Patriarchal theory:
The Patriarchal society was replaced after matriarchal society, here
The oldest living male ascendent became the authority of the society which was an aggregation of many families. According to Plato and Aristotle the Roman and Hindu Joint families in India were the Patriarchal. According to Henry Maine, the ancient society were not numerically strong to exercise authority over a wide territory. But as time passed on, the society multiplied and formed strict rule of Kingship, thus laying the foundation of modern state.
Social Contract or Compact theory:
According to this theory, the origin of State is due to the outcome of Social contract. According to Sir Hobbs, in ancient days, ‘Might was Right’ and man lived in a State of war with violence existing everywhere. Slowly, he entered into agreement with the like persons to create an Authority who would rule over them. Thus, people surrendered their natural rights of liberty to a single person or body of persons called the Sovereign for the sake of gaining security of life for them. In general, even if we born as individuals every action of us is connected with the state, for example, from birth certificate for a child, his education, career and so many other plans and formalities are exhibited by the Government institution or the institutions that are approved by Government.
Comments
Post a Comment