State

Theories of origin of state

BA Part-1 (Political Science)
Subsid. Paper
G K Jha
Asst. Prof.
Deptt. of Political Sc.
Marwari College,Darbhanga
 State and its origin
• So far we ‘ve come to know what is state and
what it does.Now the question arises in one’s
mind as to how and when exactly the state
originated.
• Unlike natural Science we cannot be certain and
exact in estimating out the date of origin of the
state.
• It, therefore, compells us to know the various
propositions regarding the origin and hence so
many theories telling their own ways.
 Important Theories of the Origin of
State
• Divine origin theory;
• Force Theory;
• Patriarchal Theory;
• Matriarchal Theory;
• Social Contract Theory;
• Historical/Evolutionary theory; and
• Marxist Theory
 1. Divine Right Theory
• The State, its advocates maintain was created by
God and governed by His deputy or vicegerent.
• He (God) sent His deputy to rule over them.
• The ruler was a divinely appointed agent and he
was responsible for his actions to God alone.
• As the ruler was the deputy of God, obedience to
him was held to be a religious duty and resistance
a sin.
 Divine right theory…
• Nobody could limit his will and restrict his
power.
• His word was law and his actions were always
just and benevolent.
• To complain against the authority of the ruler
and to characterize his actions as unjust was a
sin for which there was divine punishment.
 Evaluation
• This theory is so enunciated, believed in and
accepted, thus, implied:
• i) That God deliberately created the State and
this specific act of His grace was to save
mankind from destruction.
• ii) God sent his Deputy or Vice-regent to rule
over mankind.
 Criticism
• The divine rights of kings /Monarchy is
divinely ordained and the King draws his
authority from God.
• Monarchy is hereditary and it is the divine
right of a King that it should pass from father
to son.
• The King is answerable to God alone and
resistance to the lawful authority of a King is a
sin
 2. Force Theory
• It emphasizes the origin of the State in the
subordination of the weak to the strong.
• A person physically stronger can capture and
enslaved the weak. Having increased the
number of his followers, over whom he
exercised undisputed authority, he became a
tribal chief.
 Force Theory…
• The powerful conquered the weak - this
process of conquest and domination
continued till the victorious tribe secured
control over a definite territory.
Implications Of The Theory Of Force:
• I) Force is not only a historical factor, but is
present essential feature of the State
• ii) The States were born of force only
 Force Theory
iii) Power is their justification and raison d'être
iv) The maintenance and extension of power
within and without is the sole aim of the
State.
 3. Social Contract Theory
• It postulates a state of nature as the original
conditions mankind and
• The state of nature was not an organized society.
Each man living therein led a life of his own,
uncontrolled by any laws of human imposition.
• Social Contract is a Voluntary agreement made
amongst individuals through which an organized
society, or State, is brought into existence.
• Hobbes, Locke Rousseau as original thinkers and
revived by John Rawls in modern times.
Elements of Social Contract Theory
➢ The image of a hypothetical stateless society,i.e. a state
of nature is established. Unconstrained freedom means
that life is ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’.
➢ Individuals therefore seek to escape from the state of
nature by entering into a social contract, recognizing that
only a sovereign power can secure order and stability.
➢ The social contract obliges citizens to respect and obey
the state, ultimately in gratitude for the stability and
security that only a system of political rule can deliver.
 Thomas Hobbes(1588-1679)
• An English Philosopher, who subsequently became
tutor of the Cavendish family. Writing at a time of
uncertainty and civil strife, precipitated by English
Revolution, Hobbes developed the first
comprehensive theory of nature and human
behaviour since Aristotle.
• His classic work Leviathan(1651) discussed the
grounds of political obligation and provided a
defence for absolutist government.
 Thomas Hobbes
• The State of Nature: characterized as the pre-social
phase of human nature “the liberty that each man has
to use his own power for the preservation of his own
nature.” Man not at all social, indeed “nothing but grief
in the company of his fellows”- all being almost equally
selfish, self- seeking, egoistic, brutal and aggressive.
The Contract: Agreed to surrender their natural rights
into the hands of common superior and to obey his
commands. A contract binding each and all to
unquestioning obedience to a sovereign could really
establish a stable commonwealth.
 John Locke
• The State of Nature: It was pre-political and not pre-
social Man was neither selfish, nor self- seeking, nor
aggressive. Men were equal and free to act they
thought fit, but within the bounds of the law of nature.
• Need for Civil Society According to Locke, this “ill
condition” was due to three important wants which
remained unsatisfied in the state of nature: i) The want
of an established, settled, known law ii) The want of a
known and indifferent judge, and iii) The want of an
executing power to enforce just decisions.
 Locke…
• The social contract was no more than a transfer of certain rights
and powers so that man’s remaining rights would be protected and
preserved. The contract was for limited and specific purposes and
what was given up was transferred to the community as a whole
and not to a man or to a assembly of men.
• Two Contracts:
• i) A Social Contract which brought into being the civil society or the
State.
• ii) A governmental contract when society in its corporate capacity
established a government and selected a ruler to remove the
inconveniences, which necessitates the formation of the civil
society or the State.
• Locke recognized the existence of 3 powers in the civil society or
the State: legislative, executive and federative.
 Jean Jacques Rousseau(1712-78)
• The State of Nature: man in this state of nature was a “noble savage” who
led a life of primitive simplicity and idyllic happiness. He was independent,
contented, self- sufficient, healthy, and fearless and “without need of his
fellows or desire to harm them.”
• Emergence of Civil Society: individuals became a collective unity – a
society “puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme
direction of the general will and in our corporate capacity we receive each
member as an indivisible part of the whole.”
General Will: only one contract - social and political The individual
surrendered himself completely and unconditionally to the will of the
body of which he became a member. The body so created was a moral and
collective body and Rousseau called it the General Will.
The unique feature of the General Will: It represented collective good as
distinguished from the private interests of its members. It was the will of
all the citizens when they were willing not their own private but the
general good. all citizens willing the best interests of the community and
its lasting welfare, it must it must be sovereign.
• General Will- the genuine interest of a
collective body, equivalent to the common
good; the will of all, provided each person acts
selflessly.
• Rousseau's writing(Emile and The Social
Contract) reflect a deep belief in the goodness
of ‘natural’ men and the corruption of ‘Social
Men”.
 4. Patriarchal Theory
• Patriarchy literally means ‘rule by the father'. The
domination of husband-father within the family,
and the subordination of his wife and children.
• However in general sense the term is used to
denote the ‘rule by men’, drawing attention to
the totality of oppression and exploitation to
which women are subjects.
• It is a key concept in radical Feminist analysis,tn
that it emphasizes that gender inequality is
systematic, institutionalized and pervasive.
 4a. Patriarchal Theory
State is an enlargement of the family. Originally, the family
consisted of a man, his wife and children. The father was
the head of the family and his control and authority was
complete in all respects over all its members.
When his children married there was expansion in the original
family and it led to the establishment of new families. But
the authority of the father and head of the original family
remained unabated as before all lived and functioned
under the recognized authority of the senior living male
member of the original family.
With the lapse of time many members withdrew from the
parent tribe and settled in new lands in search of their
living. SIR HENRY MAINE’S is the original proponent f this
theory.
 4b. Matriarchal Theory
Mc Lennan, Jenks and Morgan are the notable exponents of the
Matriarchal Theory.
They reject outright the proposition that the patriarchal family
was the earliest form of society. Kinship could only be traced
through mother, matriarch.
The advocates of this theory maintain that patriarchal family is
possible where either the monogamous or the polygamous
institution of marriage exists. The earliest form of marriage
was polyandry, one wife having several husbands.
“the credit of having discovered the clan, a maternally organized,
hereditary and unilateral unit, unilateral because children
traded this system belonged to the clan of their mother,
without regard to the clan of their father.”
5. Historical or Evolutionary theory
• It explains that the State is the product of
growth, a slow and steady evolution extending
over a long period of time and shaping itself
into the complex structure of a modern State.
• Important Factors of rise and growth of the
State: i) Kinship ii) Religion iii) Property and
Defense iv) Force v) Political Consciousness.
• All these factors cumutatively led to the
growth of the idea of state in modern times.
In lieu of conclusion…