What is the difference between state and society?

Answer 1

Two of the most important concepts that emerge in any discussion of liberty are 'the State' and 'Society', but it is often far from clear what any given person means by those terms. Part of the confusion stems from the fact that the definitions can shift dramatically depending upon the theoretical approach of the speaker. Virtually all individualists agree that there is some distinction to be drawn between a State and a Society. But exactly where the line should be drawn has been the subject of active debate, at least since the writings of the 17th century English classical liberal john Locke.

The 19th-20th century German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer spearheaded an analysis of these key terms in his classic work The State. Oppenheimer defined the State, "I mean by it that summation of privileges and dominating positions which are brought into being by extra-economic power....I mean by Society, the totality of concepts of all purely natural relations and institutions between man and man..."(xxxiii).(1) He contrasted what he terms 'the political means' with 'the economic means' of acquiring wealth or power. The State uses the political means -- in other words, force -- to plunder and exploit Society which used the economic means -- in other words, co-operation. Thus, the State was the enemy of Society.

The 20th century American individualist Albert Jay Nock was one of the main conduits of Oppenheimer's thought into the United States. He captured his mentor's sentiment in a book entitled Our Enemy the State. Nock wrote, "Taking the State wherever found, striking into its history at any point, one sees no way to differentiate the activities of its founders, administrators, and beneficiaries from those of a professional-criminal class."(2)

At this point in his argument, however, Nock introduced a third concept into his discussion of liberty, that of 'Government'. Nock's Government is an agency that protects individual rights within Society presumably in exchange for a 'fee', such as embodied in a reasonable tax rate. Nock was not along in distinguishing between a Government and the State: the anti-statist philosopher Ayn Rand also embraced the concept of a limited Government that would function as a night watchman, unobtrusively protecting the person and property of its customers. Indeed, Oppenheimer himself left the door open for a distinct agency called Government when he declared, in the concluding paragraph to the introduction to The State, "Others may call any form of leadership and government or some other ideal the 'State.' That is a matter of personal style."(xxxiii)

The contemporary philosopher Tibor Machan offered his definitional distinction between the State and an agency called Government. The State was a jurisdictional claim to territorial sovereignty that persisted through time. The Government was the actual agency that acted to carry out the decrees of the State. Thus, the Government might change from Republican to Democrat, but the State remained the same. Whether Reagan or Clinton occupies the White House, each man would represent the same State that derived its legitimacy from the American Revolution and the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

More radical voices within the individualist tradition, such as that of the economist Murray Rothbard, did not draw such a distinction between State or Government. Or, to the extent they viewed the two as technically separate entities, such individualist anarchists typically condemned both as being invasive. They asked a haunting question: how can any agency or institution rightfully claim a monopoly jurisdiction over providing 'a service' to customers who do not wish to subscribe to it? If Government provides a service, like a night watchman, can you take your business elsewhere?

The discussion of individual freedom returns inevitably to how the key concepts of the State, Society, and the Government are being defined. And in pursuing those definitions one fact becomes quickly apparent. They are more than a matter of personal style, as Oppenheimer suggested: they involve deep ideological and historical disagreements with equally profound implications.

What is the Nature of the State?

Whenever you speak of 'the State', you are dealing with an abstraction and intellectual care must be taken not to make something overly concrete of it. The analytic approach traditionally adopted by classical liberals is called methodological individualism. This approach claims that only individuals exist, and that the institutions of society -- such as the Family, the Church, the State -- all result from and can analyzed in terms of individuals interacting with each other within those particular institutional frameworks. Thus, the State consists of a group [or groups] of individuals who work according to certain rules within that particular institutional framework.

In short, the State is not a physical entity that exists independently. It is an abstraction that has emerged many times and in many forms throughout human history. Sometimes it has been lauded as the ideal expression of Society, as in Plato's The Republic. At other times, it has been excoriated as a vicious parasite riding on the back of Society, as in Rothbard's For a New Liberty. With such division of attitudes, the challenge to political thinkers is to discern the commonality that exists between all states in order to derive a definition of 'the State'.

Historically, when political thinkers have attempted to discover the essential nature of 'the State' and whether it has legitimacy, they have looked to the origins of that institution for answers. In general, there are four basic and somewhat overlapping theories of how the State originated. Each theory carries different implications for the State's relationship to Society. The first theory is a supernatural one which claims that the State, or at least a certain ruler, is in place through the will of God. This theory results in theocracy and the Divine Right of Kings. According to it, the members of Society -- who are presumably placed by God in that role as well -- owe some level of allegiance to even an abusive State.

The second theory attempts to ground the State in more naturalistic terms. It claims that the State -- like the family -- is an almost spontaneous institution that naturally evolves from the act of community. Because individuals and their property require protection, an overriding institution naturally evolves to act as a policeman and a final arbiter of disputes. According to this theory, no hard line necessarily distinguishes the State from Society, which are engaged in a co-operative venture.

The third and fourth theories are ones of conflict. The third one claims that the State emerges due to internal warfare within the Society. Karl Marx popularized this view by analyzing the State as an agency of class warfare by which the capitalists controlled the workers. For Marx and his belief in inevitable class conflict, the State is an expression and protector of one segment of Society at the expense of another segment.(3)

The fourth theory looks to external conflicts and maintains that the State arose as the result of one tribe conquering another tribe.

Within classical liberalism, two theories of the origin of the State have struggled for domination: the naturalistic theory by which the State evolves from Society; and, the external conflict one by which the State may be considered to be a continuing act of war committed against Society by a separate group. The former is called the consent theory of the State. The latter is known as the conquest theory of the State. These are not merely historical suppositions. They are analytical approaches intended to call into question or to confirm whether the State can ever claim legitimacy. If the State in its very genesis requires the mass violation of human rights, it becomes far more difficult to ethically justify the institution than if it arose from mass agreement.

Thus, the following discussion deals not only on the his torical origin of the State, but also touches on its possible grounding in ethics.

The Consent Theory of the State

John Locke's The Two Treatises on Government is a pivotal document in the history of individualism.(4) In his Second Treatise, as Karen Vaugh observed, "Locke argues the case of individual natural rights, limited government depending on the consent of the governed, separation of powers within government, and most radically, the right of people within society to depose rulers who fail to uphold their end of the social contract."(5) The Second Treatise, from which both the French and America revolutions drew heavily, remains the touchstone for consent theory within the classical liberal tradition.

Locke believed that God had given the world in common to men for their use and he justified private property -- the appropriation of a common good for personal use -- by arguing that each man had an ownership claim to his or her own person. Based on this self-ownership, Locke argued,

"The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with, and joyned to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property."(6)

The need to protect the property of 'life, liberty, and estate' led men to form a Government.(7) In other words, the institution arose as a shield against the conflicts that naturally occur when individuals accumulate property in a world of scarce resources. It arose through an explicit contract by which men relinquished to the State the right to adjudicate their own disputes. For its part of the social contract, the State or Government pledged to rule in order to secure men's claim to their property. For example, it was obliged to regulate property so as to safeguard it, e.g. through inheritance laws. Thus, the existence of private property could be said to be a cause of the Lockean State, or Government.

In the Second Treatise, Locke attempted to counter some of the arguments of the 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes who also believed that the State