Political Power: Understanding State, Nation, and Society
State Organization of Political Power
The sociology of the state studies the relationship between the state and civil society.
Nation, State, and Civil Society
Nation
The concept of a nation has evolved over time. The average age in a nation is defined as a group of people who are credited with a single source. A nation was becoming an organization with precise boundaries of the unit, which is based on consent.
In the contemporary age, misunderstood nationalism caused wars and fighting, so some thinkers argue an idea that opposes the state and nation that tries to homogenize culture, language, and tradition.
Civil Society
Civil society consists of political and social legal citizens who recognize each other about certain rights. It is part of the public sphere that lies between the family and the state.
State
The state is the largest political organization among human communities. It is described in different ways. In legal and political issues, the state arises with the word Machiavelli. This type of political organization that is called “state” is sociological, physical, legal, and ethical.
Functions of the State
- Maintaining Law and Order: This is obtained by the police, in charge of taking care of the welfare of citizens and submitting to the orders of political authority.
- Promoting the Common Good: A state corresponds to defending and promoting the common good in civil society.
- Managing Public Affairs: The state has an obligation to manage and legalize issues that affect citizens.
- Being an Economic Agent: The management of the state in this environment is vital to collect taxes and produce various public goods for citizens.
- Issuing and Regulating Money Markets: In modern societies, the state also assumes the functions of producing and putting into circulation stock certificates or public purposes, etc.
- Distribution of Money: It is said there is a welfare state when the state ensures health, education, pensions, and the public a fair distribution of economic resources.
- Exclusively Monopolizing Legitimate Violence (Weber, Marx): It is the ability to use force to impose and even find the wills of individuals.
Philosophical Theories of the State
Platonic Theory
According to Plato, the man signed the contract of citizenship, by which humans choose to belong to a state and comply with the law, even when they are unjust. For Plato, justice is a key city, meaning equality. To become just, one must go through a process of improvement.
Aristotelian Theory
For Aristotle, society is a natural thing because human beings are sociable. Therefore, what characterizes the human being is living in a society, but looking for the common good above their own.
Modern Theories
Absolutist Theory (Hobbes)
Hobbes understands the state as a contract of the community. What makes the state is trying to maintain balance and avoid social conflicts and establishing their own moral laws.
How does the theory of the common good relate to Hobbes’s absolutist theory?
They have in common that both impose the interests of the community above the individual interests of each person, and the two theories claim that human beings are selfish, and must impose the collective to avoid a conflict between people. Also, the state is fundamental since it assumes exercising the rights and ensuring peace among people.
Finally, in both, the population is subject to state power.
Story of a Society
On a desert island, eight castaways struggle to survive day after day. The food is not abundant, but at the moment, there is enough to feed all eight.
But the day comes when they realize that food is running low. And that makes all start worrying and seeking solutions.
One of them, probably the most cowardly of all, does not want to go hungry, and although he is very cowardly, he is one of the most intelligent of the group, so he manages to convince the strongest to ally with him, and thus impose themselves as leaders over others. They become the decision-makers and achieve the necessary comforts to survive.
Thus begins a situation in which the smartest and strongest of the group command over the others. Terrified by the strength of the other two, the rest are unable to act and reveal themselves.