Society : Government : State

Focus on the State

In regard to politics, there are several territory-related political notions that have been explicitly distinguished in the Taxonomy: community, society, nation, government, state.

Most focus has been on society and government. Government and politics in political territories, especially in relation to culture, is examined in a later section.

The most serious confusion involves the State: for many, it is equivalent to the Government; for State apologists or apparatchiks, it is equivalent to the Society.

So far, the State has been given little attention, apart from explaining it as the context for politics and dependent on violence. This is because the State regards itself as above politics: it operates with secrecy and regularly violates society's values and laws. It's overt manifestations are to be found in the regimes and ideologies associated with governing. It is most noticeable as the guarantor of sovereignty.

The functioning that leads to the existence of a Government is based primarily in the Social Order (PsH6-G7) of a Society; while the State is about preservation of the Ethical Order (PsH"6-G7). However, recent historical studies indicate an overlap. The present Topic serves as an introduction to a conjecture about how politics relates to maturation of the State.

The Society

Society refers to a form of association based on territory. That means its members willingly sharing a particular reality. That reality is expressed in terms of values and referred to as culture.

Society flourishes in so far as its members work hard, live shared values, and achieve their goals in a socially acceptable way. It naturally values peace and generally enables peaceful coexistence.

Society is made up of numerous territorial communities and networks of diverse groups. Territorially, it can be regarded as a community of communities. For political management, it is usually necessary to identify tiers of territorial communities.

A nation is a society with a single culture. However, most societies are no longer homogenous, and most so-called nation-states are multi-national with all the problems of accommodating minorities.
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Japan is nearly a mono-culture, but most developed societies are multi-cultural. Newer countries developed via immigration, like the USA and Australia, are openly multi-cultural, whereas older countries like France and the UK struggle with their minority cultures.

Members' core value systems must be similar and peaceful coexistence must prevail in regard to differences (e.g. religious beliefs). In the absence of sufficiently shared values and beliefs, society are liable to become riven by conflict even civil war, especially under economic stress.

The nature of values and the diversity of groups within a society means there will be many differences within society in regard to what its needs are and how they are best satisfied.

The Government

As explained, Government is a special organization created to meet the needs of a society, especially where the individual member acting alone or in concert has insufficient capability or legitimacy to proceed.

These needs relate to both the internal workings of society (e.g. emergency services, justice system) where the focus is on the individual member, and the well-being and survival of the society as a whole, where the focus is on the community and socially-shared needs (e.g. for infrastructure, for control of epidemics).

The Government is inherently a single institution that is continuous, depersonalized and differentiated. It is the machinery by which both Society and the State are supported. Insofar as it exists to serve society (i.e. to achieve things), it is constituted by values and goals that require to be politically debated and accepted by the most powerful groups in society.

Government is in effect a number of agencies doing useful work, as well as the legislature that devises useful laws related to society's values. To finance this work, the Government is given the power to raise taxes by compulsion.

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Domain Controls for Purpose-RL6ensure the Primal Need for Governance-PH'6CHK is met, using Modes in the Spiral of Politics-PH'6C as the Primal Means, under a psychosocial pressure for personal Autonomy. This control is about guidance and support for realizing values (PsH6), where The Government (PsH6-G61) is subordinate to The Citizenry (PsH6-G61). Here The Government tops out at L6-Value Systems, while The Citizenry tops out at L7-Ultimate Values.

For a full account, see Ch. 12 Working with Values: download here.

The State

The State is something distinct and sui generis: it is the stable embodiment of the unity inherent in a Society and its Government. To ensure stability, the State is a violence-based institution that is required to be:

outward-looking: towards actual or threatened violence from other States, for legitimation by other States; and to manipulate other States for its own Society's benefit;
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inward-looking: so as to ensure that all in Society are sufficiently supportive of the State, and the Government is under its control.

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The outward-looking capability depends on a diplomatic service and a military system.

The inward-looking capacity depends on a bureaucracy, ideally operating in a politically impartial fashion and staffed on a meritocratic basis (cf. Weber).

While Governments come and go, the military and bureaucracy should be mostly permanent.

The State is defined by its:

  • strategy i.e. how to use its brute power (typically in war but also internally)
  • legitimacy i.e. how its activities are justified (by society and by other states)
  • history i.e. how it is believed to have come into existence and to be proceeding.

More on History:Closed History is the self-understanding of a society. It legitimates constitutional law and strategy by showing how the requirements of the particular constitutional order are being met. So history is always a narrative about the success of the current order.

The Government ensures the existence of the State by providing:

  1. a Leader: Head of State (but not the figure-head)
  2. an unaccountable bureaucracy (e.g. diplomatic service)
  3. a war machine: military and para-military services (e.g. intelligence)
  4. a propaganda machine (e.g. to provide history and bolster legitimacy).

The Stateis always empowered (or empowers itself) to take full control in an emergency and suspend the rule of law. Government then becomes wholly subservient and societal-political processes are repressed by threats and violence if need be. Leadership varies: the government may use its leader or appoint a dictator; but, if government is in disarray, the military is often the most motivated and best organised to lead.

The State is never more itself than when it is at war because "war is the health of the State." In a real sense, it is eternally at war. As Bourne went on to say: The State represents all the autocratic, arbitrary, coercive, belligerent forces within a social group.

Three Current Characteristics:

■ Demands for unity in Society and unwavering support for the State based on its sanctified mission to defend the moral order.
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The State claims sanctity using mystical symbols like the flag, whips up popular emotions like patriotism, seeks a herd response based on willing obedience, and opposes any thoughtful analysis based on the values of its Society. It manifests an extreme intolerance of dissent in thought and speech, or any activity that fractures unity no matter how trivial.

Hegel refers to the State as: "the march of God in the world":

When war fever is whipped up, the State's demand for unity is aided and abetted by the majority. Self-sacrifice is demanded, irrational persecution of suspected enemies occurs, independent or dissident opinion becomes intolerable, and vast unimaginable sums are raised for purely destructive purposes. Freedom of speech and thought are suspended because anything less than total blind loyalty is suspect and leads to disgrace or severe punishment.

■ Amorality rules because the State is about power and the pragmatic imperative. It serves elites who get both social success and personal gratification from wielding power.
Paradoxically,Closed overt justification for amoral means is preservation of the moral order, and citizens also tend to see it that way. Personal violence in a society is similarly released by moral violations.
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■ Secrecy is demanded and enforced ruthlessly.
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The State may change as regimes and ideologies evolve in response to crises like:

  • discontinuity in military technology e.g. invention of gunpowder, nuclear bombs
  • other strategic innovations e.g. in intelligence gathering.
  • functioning of other states that enhance their power e.g. economic organization

  • altered citizen expectations e.g. due to migrations, religious developments

Civil war is a direct attack on the State because it may lead to partition or secession. By contrast, revolution is an attack on the Government because, if successful, only the regime or elites enjoying power change, while the State remains.

Societal (i.e. political) control of the State is difficult if not impossible. The State will simply pick off any and all leaders, typically by foul means including mobilizing sentiment against associates and organisations involved.

Domain Controls for Purpose-RL6 meet the Primal Need for Governance, using Politics as the Primal Means, all under a pressure for Autonomy.

The State regards itself as the primary instrument for establishing society's requirement for sovereignty (PH'6-CG71) i.e. the ability to determine its own fate and future without external interference. Sovereignty, in turn, assumes or envisages the unity of a society (PH'6CsHK-G7) is maintained .

While, by and large, politics and government take unity and sovereignty for granted, the State never does: it commonly claims that it alone possesses sovereignty, either inherently or by irreversible delegation, and must defend it.

The relevant THEE frameworks for the State flow from the Tertiary Hierarchy of Purpose: the Ethical Rules (PH"6). Social stability is taken to depend on laws (PH"6-L6) which are fundamentally dependent on the government's monopoly on legitimate violence.

The triplet emerging from ethical rules forms society-based ethical controls (as distinct from humanity-based ethical controls). The originating Tree, the ethical vehicle, is An Upright Citizen (PH"6K). The structural hierarchy reveals ethical effects: its components ensure citizens accommodate to authority (PsH"6). The final Tree is A Stable Society (PsH"6K)—which is the preoccupation of the State.

The pragmatic imperative (PsH"6-G61) is the license that the State uses to justify any activity that may be called into question.

The Trees have been posted (but not published) in Taxonomy Notes section. Note: Ethical Rules is Ch.8 and Accommodating Authority is Ch.9 in Working with Values. Download here.

Originally posted: 9-Jun-2015. Last updated: 10-Jan-2024.