Who said the state is prior to the individual?

Answer 1

William Ernest Hocking said it. The entire quote goes as follows:

"It is the needs and the initiative of individual that have made the state, and continue to make it. This implies that the individual is prior to the state; it also implies that the state is prior to the completed individual. he needs the state to become the person that he has it in him to become."

William Ernest Hocking (1873-1966), American philosopher, was noted for his contribution to idealism and for his analysis of religious experience. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. A graduate of Harvard University, Hocking taught there from 1914 to 1943; beginning in 1937 he served as chairman of the philosophy department. Hocking's major work is The Meaning of God in Human Experience (1912). His idealism is concerned with the union of idea and feeling, postulating an alternation in experience between intellect and intuition, but always with a deep underlying religious sensitivity.

Answer 2

The philosopher Plato is commonly associated with the idea that the state is prior to the individual. In his work "The Republic," Plato argues that individuals are best served by living within a harmonious state that promotes justice and the common good.