State (polity)
A state is a political entity that regulates society and the population within a territory.[1] Government is considered to form the fundamental apparatus of contemporary states.[2][3]
"The State" redirects here. For other uses, see State.
Most often, a country has a single state, with various administrative divisions. It is a unitary state or a federal union; in the latter type, the term "state" is sometimes used to refer to the federated polities that make up the federation. (Other terms that are used in such federal systems may include "province", "region" or other terms.)
For most of prehistory people lived in stateless societies. The earliest forms of states arose about 5,500 years ago.[4] Over time societies became more stratified and developed institutions leading to centralised governments. These gained state capacity in conjunction with the growth of cities, which was often dependent on climate, and economic development, with centralisation often spurred on by insecurity and territorial competition.
Over time, a variety of forms of states developed, which used many different justifications for their existence (such as divine right, the theory of the social contract, etc.). Today, the modern nation state is the predominant form of state to which people are subject.[5] Sovereign states have sovereignty; any ingroup's claim to have a state faces some practical limits via the degree to which other states recognize them as such.
Definitions of a state are disputed.[6][7] According to sociologist Max Weber: a "state" is a polity that maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, although other definitions are common.[8][9] Absence of a state does not preclude the existence of a society, such as stateless societies like the Haudenosaunee Confederacy that "do not have either purely or even primarily political institutions or roles".[10] The degree and extent of governance of a state is used to determine whether it has failed.[11]
Etymology[edit]
The word state and its cognates in some other European languages (stato in Italian, estado in Spanish and Portuguese, état in French, Staat in German and Dutch) ultimately derive from the Latin word status, meaning "condition, circumstances". Latin status derives from stare, "to stand", or remain or be permanent, thus providing the sacred or magical connotation of the political entity.
The English noun state in the generic sense "condition, circumstances" predates the political sense. It was introduced to Middle English c. 1200 both from Old French and directly from Latin.
With the revival of the Roman law in 14th-century Europe, the term came to refer to the legal standing of persons (such as the various "estates of the realm" – noble, common, and clerical), and in particular the special status of the king. The highest estates, generally those with the most wealth and social rank, were those that held power. The word also had associations with Roman ideas (dating back to Cicero) about the "status rei publicae", the "condition of public matters". In time, the word lost its reference to particular social groups and became associated with the legal order of the entire society and the apparatus of its enforcement.[12]
The early 16th-century works of Machiavelli (especially The Prince) played a central role in popularizing the use of the word "state" in something similar to its modern sense.[13] The contrasting of church and state still dates to the 16th century. The North American colonies were called "states" as early as the 1630s. The expression "L'État, c'est moi" ("I am the State") attributed to Louis XIV, although probably apocryphal, is recorded in the late 18th century.[14]
Theories for the emergence of the state[edit]
Earliest states[edit]
Theories for the emergence of the earliest states emphasize grain agriculture and settled populations as necessary conditions.[85] Some argue that climate change led to a greater concentration of human populations around dwindling waterways.[85]
Modern state[edit]
Hendrik Spruyt distinguishes between three prominent categories of explanations for the emergence of the modern state as a dominant polity: (1) Security-based explanations that emphasize the role of warfare, (2) Economy-based explanations that emphasize trade, property rights and capitalism as drivers behind state formation, and (3) Institutionalist theories that sees the state as an organizational form that is better able to resolve conflict and cooperation problems than competing political organizations.[96]
According to Philip Gorski and Vivek Swaroop Sharma, the "neo-Darwinian" framework for the emergence of sovereign states is the dominant explanation in the scholarship.[100] The neo-Darwininian framework emphasizes how the modern state emerged as the dominant organizational form through natural selection and competition.[100]
Quotations related to State at Wikiquote