There is a state political organization society, possessing an apparatus of power.

The state serves society, solves problems facing society as a whole, as well as tasks reflecting the interests of individual social groups and territorial communities of the country's population. The solution to these problems of organization and life of society is an expression of the social purpose of the state. Changes in the life of the country and society, for example, industrialization, urbanization, population growth, put forward new tasks for the state in the field of social policy, in the development of measures for organizing the life of society in new conditions.

To the number most important tasks, in the resolution of which the social purpose of the state is expressed, includes ensuring the integrity of society, fair cooperation of various social groups, timely overcoming acute contradictions in the life of society and its constituent communities and groups.

The social purpose and active role of the state are expressed in ensuring a strong social order, scientifically based use of nature, and in protecting the environment of human life and activity. And the most important thing in characterizing the social purpose of the state is to ensure a decent life for a person and the well-being of the people.

The ideas of the social purpose of the state were concretized and developed in the concept (theory) of the “social state”. The provisions on the social state are enshrined in a number of constitutions of democratic states.

A democratic social state is designed to provide all citizens with constitutional rights and freedoms. To ensure not only material well-being, but also cultural rights and freedoms. Welfare state is a country with a developed culture. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted on December 16, 1966, states that the ideal of free human personality, free from fear and want, can only be realized if conditions are created in which everyone can enjoy their economic, social and cultural rights, as well as civil and political rights.

IN modern conditions in Russia, the urgent tasks in the state’s social policy are ensuring the right to work and measures to overcome unemployment, labor protection, improving its organization and payment. It is necessary to multiply and improve measures to strengthen and state support family, motherhood and childhood. Social policy needs to stimulate assistance to older citizens, people with disabilities, strengthen health care, and other social institutions and services. The big tasks of the state's social policy are in the field of regulating the demographic processes of society, stimulating the birth rate, and enhancing the role of women in the life of the state's society.

(V.D. Popkov)

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The correct answer must contain the following elements:

1) the answer to the first question: a political organization of society with an apparatus of power;

2) the answer to the second question: a system of institutions that has supreme power in a certain territory.

Elements of the answer can be given in other formulations that are similar in meaning.

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Book: Political Science / Dzyubko

4.4. Political organization of society. state - central organization

Society at any stage of its development acts as a set of interconnected organizations. It is organized in all spheres of life. The political system, which covers the political sphere and gives it a certain logical completeness of connections, is also characterized by a system of organizations. All political organizations function autonomously. Their differentiation is growing. However, this does not mean that they exist on their own. Evolution modern development represents a two-pronged process: differentiation and interdependence of political institutions and organizations. All of them, in their totality of relationships, create the political organization of society.

The political organization of society is a set of interconnected and mutually exclusive state, party organizations, public associations, created and operating for the purpose of forming and functioning of the system of power and orderliness of politics or have influence on it.

The determining place in the political organization of society is occupied by the state as a form of organization of social life. Without the state there is no political organization and political system of society as a whole. The state and its power are the axis on which the political system arises, rests and functions. Other organizational structures are being formed around the state. Outside of connection with the state, they have no political properties. And therefore the state is fundamental, basic organizational structure in the political organization of society and its entire political system.

The place of the state as a defining element of the political organization of society is determined by its purpose in society. She appears as:

> political organization of civil society;

> bearer of power in society;

> representative of the entire population in a given geographical area;

> a form of political domination, which is expressed in the adoption of power decisions affecting the entire society and binding on the entire population;

> the source of everything political in society, its core element;

> representative of general interest;

> an instrument for implementing the general will in society;

> creator of common goals in society;

> the main stabilizer of social life;

> the main subject of political sovereignty.

Consequently, the state has a complex mechanism, and its functioning is multifaceted.

We all live in a state, feel its influence, submit to its authority, use the services of state bodies, therefore, it would seem, defining a state for everyone should be a simple matter. However political literature Since ancient times, he has given many definitions of the state. And this is not accidental, since the state is a very complex political phenomenon and it is too difficult to comprehend such richness in the concept. The multivariate definition of the state is also due to the fact that, as it develops, it acquires new features and deepens the content of its functioning.

Yes, even for Aristotle social life served the state, and the state itself was seen as an association for governing society. The good of the state was primitive relative to the good of the individual, man, who “by nature is a political being” (Aristotle).

Aristotle's ideas about the state attracted N. Machiavelli and J. Bodin. N. Machiavelli viewed the state as the embodiment of strong secular centralized power. J. Bodin defined the state as the legal management of many aspects of society. The definition of the legal principle of the state and the most important idea - the idea of ​​state sovereignty - was a progressive phenomenon of that time.

The Marxist-Leninist concept of the state was based on class violence, which was considered as the essence of political and legal phenomena. The political ideology of class violence was not a product of Marx's imagination. It is known that since ancient times, political thought has distinguished between two sides of the state - organized violence and the common good (what is now called public, or general, welfare). The absolutization of one of the sides led this or that thinker to the theory according to which the essence of the state is either violence, or a way of organizing society that ensures the common good. On the basis of this, either the theory of violence or the doctrine of the good of life were formed.

The Marxist theory of the state as an organ of violence is historically understandable, since the doctrine of class struggle as a metatheory of ideas about the state was formed during the formation of industrial society. At that time, the social structure had a pronounced class character. Class antagonisms gave rise to revolutionary actions of the proletariat, and the state personified and defended the interests of the predominantly economically dominant class.

However, in an industrial society, the Marxist “theory of violence” is unsuitable for analyzing statehood. This is explained by modern society is complex social structure, where violence increasingly fades into the background as a result of narrowing social contradictions, and the general social activity of the state comes to the fore.

There are heated discussions going on around the problem of state and society today in world political science. Based on the analysis of American political scientists G. Benjamin G. Duval, five authoritative concepts of the state have emerged:

1. The state is an “acting” or “authoritative force. Accordingly, before this, she makes a decision and makes policy in society.

2. The state is the embodiment of certain “organizational principles” that provide structural coherence and integrity to the various institutions of government. This is the concept of the state as an organizational whole, a structurally designed state apparatus.

3. The state is the embodiment of actually existing social relations, participation in the exercise of power in society by various social forces. The state is seen as the embodiment of the will of the ruling class.

4. The state is a system of management in society. It is the embodiment of laws both de jure and de facto. The state is a machine that eliminates conflicts, regulates social relations, governs society.

5. The state is the embodiment of the dominant system of ideas and normative order in society. The state and society are essentially inseparable.

Whatever discussions are held regarding civil society and the state, one thing is clear: even the most developed and free civil society does not have such self-regulation mechanisms that would negate the role of the state. The state is the institution that introduces, organizes and regulates social processes, coordinates and harmonizes the interests of various social groups and political forces, creates legal basis complex system connections in society. The limited possibilities of self-regulation of civil society necessitate the state, which, without interfering in all its spheres, should become a powerful lever for the performance of power functions. Humanity has not yet created anything more perfect. That is why this lever must be humane (priority of human rights in relation to the rights of the state), democratic (overcoming the alienation of the individual from the state, creating a mass social base), moral (ideas of equality and justice); have a limited nature (separation of powers, creation of checks and balances).

Modern general theory The state that emerged after the Second World War in Western Europe considers the foundations of statehood in the rights of peoples. It connects the concept of state power with the category of human rights, i.e. basic pre-legislative and post-legislative requirements for a certain degree of freedom, primary in relation to the authorities. These demands and rights of peoples are recognized and recorded in principles and norms international law.

From the standpoint of international law, a state is legal form organization and functioning political power. This approach changes the content of the established theory, according to which the state was characterized by the presence of the following main features: 1) people (population); 2) territory; 3) public state power, based on the material conditions of its implementation.

1. The substantial element of the state: the presence of the people as an ethnic community, which is politically determined. Any ethnic group that recognizes itself as a historical nation on this territory has the right to create its own sovereign or autonomous organization of public power. This right is recognized by international law.

2. The territorial element of the state: the presence of a country, a geographical environment with which the nation is historically connected as a subject of the right to political self-determination. This territory is the nation's homeland. The right to a homeland is primary relative to other factors that determine the boundaries of the territory on which the political self-determination of a nation occurs.

3. Institutional element: the state is the main subject of political power and political relations. It is the main intuitional, organizational element of political relationships, the most organized political form of society. The state is an organization of public political power, limited by human rights. In other words, the state is an organization designed to ensure the free joint political, economic and spiritual existence of people. If the state is not totalitarian, it must represent the general will, and not the interests and needs of a separate social group, prevent conflicts, and if they arise, resolve them on the basis of consensus.

Note that in connection with the general theory of the state, an organization of political power that openly despises and neglects human rights (for example, does not recognize the right to life, freedom, personal integrity, carries out terror against the people of its country) is not a state in the modern understanding of this concept . Moreover, the general theory of the state recognizes the right to civil disobedience, up to and including violent resistance to an illegitimate regime of political power. Consequently, the exercise of state power is associated with its legality and legitimacy, that is, its legal validity, on the one hand, and justice, recognition, and support from the population, on the other. The severity of this problem in modern Ukraine is also explained by the conditions for the formation of nomenklatura-mafia capitalism in some areas, the insubordination in some cases of commercial, administrative, and even criminal structures, opposition from the local nomenklatura or central government, its incompetence and other factors.

Political legalization (from the Latin legalis - legal) is the establishment, recognition and support of power by law, primarily by the constitution, norms, which, depending on the type of power, can vary significantly.

The legalization of state power may be illusory. This occurs in the event of a violation of the democratic procedures for the adoption of the constitution, other acts of constitutional significance, as well as for the discrepancy between these procedures and the ability of the people to exercise constituent power when adopting the fundamental law. If the law contradicts extra-humane values, it does not correspond to the law.

Thus, constitutions and laws can be adopted, amended, or repealed in any way. For example, in many countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, military and revolutionary councils were created as a result of military coups, decreed different constitutions (sometimes suspended their operation), and often proclaimed new temporary constitutions without any procedures. In Iraq since 1970, in the UAE - since 1971, temporary constitutions have retained the force of law. IN Saudi Arabia In Nepal, the monarchs personally “gave the constitution to their faithful people.” In Brazil, the constitution was replaced by institutional acts, in Ethiopia - by proclamations. The 1936 USSR Constitution contained democratic provisions on the rights of citizens, but were not implemented, and the 1977 USSR Constitution, although formally adopted in a democratic manner, did not reflect the needs of real practice.

Consequently, legalization as a proclamation of the establishment of state power requires bringing it into a real state. This reflects the concept of legitimation of state power.

The phenomenon of political legitimacy of power is the embodiment of the cultural and human dimension. The meaning of this phenomenon lies in the acceptance of power by the population, in recognition of its right to govern and in agreement to obey it. The process of political legitimation of power involves its “incorporation” into culture, which can either accept or reject this or that system of power. Cultural, creative, social functions can only be carried out by legal authority, based on the law and acting within its limits.

Political legitimation (from the Latin legitimus - legal) is not a legal concept, but more of a factual one: it is a state that expresses justification, expediency and other dimensions of compliance of a particular state power with the attitudes and expectations of citizens, social communities, and society as a whole.

Recognition of state power is not associated with the publication of a law, the adoption of a constitution (although this may also be part of the process of legitimation), but with a complex of experiences and attitudes based on rational assessment, political experience and internal incentives, with political ideas of various segments of the population about the state authorities’ compliance with norms social justice, human rights. Illegitimate power is power based on violence and other forms of coercion, including mental influence.

The political legitimation of state power gives it appropriate authority in society. The majority of the population voluntarily and quite consciously submits to it. This makes power stable and sustainable. However, a simple arithmetic majority cannot serve as the basis for genuine legitimation, since the majority of Germans adopted the policy of territorial claims and “race cleansing” for the Hitler regime.

The decisive criterion for the political legitimation of power is its compliance with universal human values.

The political legitimation of state power can and does provide for its legalization. However, it should be remembered that legitimation sometimes contradicts formal legalization. This happens when the adopted laws do not correspond to the norms of justice and the over-democratic values ​​of the majority of the population. In this case, legitimation or not (for example, the population has a negative attitude towards the totalitarian order established by the authorities), or in the course of revolutionary events, national liberation movements, the legitimation of another, anti-state, rebel, pre-power power occurs, which has developed in the liberated areas and subsequently turns into state power.

Pseudo-legitimation is also possible when, under the influence of propaganda, incitement of hatred, the leader’s use of personal charisma while banning the opposition and free press, concealing truthful information and other actions, the majority of the population supports state power, which satisfies some of its current interests to the detriment of its fundamental aspirations.

Political legalization and legitimation of power are closely interconnected. Starting from G. Weber, three “pure” types of legitimation of power are distinguished. These are traditional, charismatic and rational legitimation.

1. Traditional legitimation is domination based on traditional authority, based on respect for customs, faith in their continuity and is based on stereotypes of consciousness and behavior.

Thus, traditions play a leading role in strengthening monarchical power in Muslim states Persian Gulf- Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, etc., as well as in Nepal, Bhutan, Brunei.

2. Charismatic legitimation is domination based on belief in the special qualities of a leader or a separate group of people, in their exclusive mission in the development of the state. An example would be the belief in a “good king,” in a “great leader of all nations.” Charismatic state ideology is associated with the names of I. Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Il Sung, Ho Chi Minh and others.

3. Rational legitimation - domination based on rational assessment, conviction in the reasonableness of existing orders, laws, rules adopted in democratic states. Rational legitimation in modern conditions is fundamental for

creation of a democratic rule of law state.

It very rarely happens that only one form of legitimation of power in a state is used; more often they act in combination. Thus, in democratic Great Britain, the main thing is the method of rational legitimation. However, the activities of Prime Ministers V. Churchill and M. Thatcher had elements of charisma, and traditions played an important role in the activities of parliament and the cabinet. To a large extent, the role of Charles de Gaulle, the President of the French State, is associated with his activities as a leader of the Resistance Movement in the fight against fascism during World War II. Power

V. Lenin and I. Stalin in the USSR was consecrated by ideological factors. Consequently, the establishment of rational legitimation takes some time.

Political legalization and political legitimation of state power are associated with the concept of political, state sovereignty.

Sovereignty is inherent in a modern state. The properties of state sovereignty include: full power, the supremacy of power in the geographical territory where the state is located; unity and indivisibility of the territory, or territorial integrity; inviolability of territorial borders and non-interference in the internal affairs of another state; provision of the legal system. The state ensures its sovereignty by all means, even by force, if circumstances require it.

A characteristic feature of the state is the presence of instruments of power to support policy. The maintenance of the army and the judicial-repressive apparatus is what especially distinguishes the state from other political organizations. No political organization is capable of declaring and waging war. Only the state can do this. Violence is a method that is unique to the state, that is, it is its monopoly. No other organization by its nature should use violence. State-legalized forms of violence. The monopoly on legitimate violence on the part of the state has limits determined by law.

The strength and power of the state, as well as its power, in modern conditions are not in the ability to use force, but in caring for members of society, creating conditions for their safety and self-realization. Abuse of power, deprivation of rights and freedoms is a consequence of unjustified concentration of state power, incompetence in the use of political force, and lack of understanding of the power prerogatives of the state.

As a sovereign, independent entity, the state performs its functions of governing society.

The essential features of the functions of the state are the following:

1) persistent objective activity of the state in one or another area of ​​life;

2) a direct connection between the essence of the state and its social purpose, which is realized through the corresponding functions;

3) the focus of the functions of the state on the implementation of specific tasks and achievement of goals that arise at each historical stage of the development of society;

4) the exercise of power in certain forms (most often legal) and with the help special methods inherent exclusively to state power.

The functions of the state are multifaceted, their formation is carried out in the process of formation, strengthening and development of the state. The order in which functions arise depends on the order of tasks facing society. The content of functions changes with the development of the state and society. The functions of the state acquire particular specificity during periods of radical social changes, transitional stages, and revolutionary upheavals.

The functions of the state can be classified according to various criteria:

> the principle of separation of powers - legislative, administrative, judicial;

> parties to state action - internal and external;

> spheres of influence of the state - economic, social, cultural, spiritual, legal, etc.;

> regulation of processes - self-regulation, self-organization, self-government, initiative, etc.;

> extrapolitical approaches - ensuring democracy; general social activities;

> volume of influence - national, maintaining world order;

> scale of meaning - basic and non-basic.

The main state functions of managing society are: management of the spheres of social, economic, spiritual life, processes, changes, development, what happens in them; regulation of national and international relations; guaranteeing compliance with generally binding norms in society; ensuring public order and national security; peacekeeping within the country and participation in global peacemaking. To carry out its functions, the state supports its own reproduction, life activity and new creation.

The state is the internal structure of bodies that perform the role of the main system, manages the affairs of society and ensures state functioning. It's about exactly about main system, since parties and public organizations. The state apparatus performs functions of national importance.

The system of government bodies in its entirety forms the state mechanism. Such a system includes: authorities, public administration bodies, courts, prosecutor's office, bodies serving the activities of the army, police, and state security. All government bodies are vested with authority, embodied in their competence (a set of rights and responsibilities).

Each state is formed in a certain way, is territorially organized and has certain methods of ruling. These primarily include the form of the state as a certain orderliness in the organization and exercise of state power. its elements are: state government - a way of organizing the highest state power;

government structure - the division of the state into certain components and the distribution of power between these parts;

state regime is a set of methods and means of exercising state power.

Historically, two forms of government have developed, namely: monarchy and republic.

Monarchy is a form of government in which power is fully, partially or nominally owned by one person (king, czar, emperor, shah) and is inherited.

As a form of government, monarchy arose during the period of slavery, and in the Middle Ages it became the main form of government. The monarchy acquired full development and changes in its defining qualities during the New Age. Historically, the following types of monarchies are known: absolute (unlimited), dualistic and parliamentary (constitutional).

An absolute monarchy is a form of government when all power is concentrated in the hands of the monarch, who alone decides all issues of power.

Dualistic monarchy is a form of government in which power functions are divided between the monarch and parliament.

Parliamentary monarchy is a system of omnipotent parliament, the monarch performs only representative functions.

The second historically known form of government is the republic.

A republic is an organization of state power that is carried out by an elected collegial body, which is elected for a certain period by the entire population or part of it. There are presidential and parliamentary republics. There are different approaches to assessing republican forms of government. The advantages of the parliamentary form are that it is seen as a more stable and systemic form of government, which prevents the spread of authoritarianism and other forms of dictatorship. The advantages of a presidential republic are seen in the fact that it more stably ensures the functioning of free power, the guarantor of which is the president. Let's consider the content of each of them. A presidential republic is a form of government when the head of state (president), alone or with subsequent approval by parliament, forms the composition of the government, which he directs personally.

A typical example of a presidential republic is the United States of America. According to the US Constitution, adopted on September 17, 1787, to which 26 amendments have since been made, the president is simultaneously the head of government and state. He is elected by the citizens of the country for four years. The president forms the government. Candidates for key positions are approved by legislative assemblies. The US Congress consists of two houses: the upper - the Senate and the lower - the House of Representatives. A peculiarity of the structure of this country is that the government is formed by the president through extra-parliamentary means. The president cannot dissolve parliament. The government is not responsible to him. The President exercises control over the federal administration. Power functions are actually divided between the president and Congress, between chambers within Congress, and between standing committees within chambers.

The peculiar relationship of the American president with the party that nominated him. He is not a party leader in the European sense. The formal head of the party, the president, is not legally so. It is understood that the President of the United States must be outside of parties, their contradictions, interests, and conflicts. However, this does not mean that the president neglects parties. Since the nomination of a candidate for the post of president depends on the party, the president strives to maintain good relations with its leaders and members, but mainly the president appeals to the electorate.

A parliamentary form of government is a form in which the composition and policies of the government are formed exclusively by parliament, the government is accountable only to it, and the president has no influence on parliament.

Parliamentary form of government exists in Great Britain, where executive branch has a strong position. The party that wins the parliamentary elections becomes the ruling party. She forms the government. The Prime Minister is vested with broad powers. The government also has great powers.

In Great Britain, the prime minister receives a mandate from the electorate. He concentrates in his hands the functions of leadership of the party and the cabinet of ministers, and is responsible to parliament. In the event of a vote of no confidence or other extraordinary circumstances, the prime minister may dissolve parliament.

A typical example of a parliamentary republic is also the Federal Republic of Germany, where all the completeness legislative branch belongs to the parliament (Bundestag). The President actually performs representative functions, his rights are narrower. The Bundestag forms the government and elects its head - the chancellor. The government is formed from among the deputies of the Bundestag, representing the party factions of the parliamentary majority. Non-partisan specialists are very rarely included in cabinets.

Classic forms of government - parliamentary republic, presidential republic, constitutional monarchy - are increasingly being replaced by mixed or simply distorted forms. The essence of the latter lies in varying degrees of combination of the features of “pure” parliamentarism, “pure” presidency and “parliamentary” monarchy. One way or another, the leading forms of government in the republican type were the parliamentary-presidential and presidential-parliamentary republic, and in the monarchical type - constitutional and parliamentary (in contrast to monarchies of an absolutist, monocratic or theocratic nature).

The parliamentary-presidential and presidential-parliamentary forms of government are characterized by a certain dualism. It lies in the fact that leading executive functions are the prerogative of both the president and the cabinet of ministers, which is responsible to parliament.

France can serve as an example. Here the president is the key figure. He develops a political and economic strategy for the country's development. The president relies on a strong bureaucracy. The peculiarity of this form is that there is a possible conflict between the president as head of state and the government.

Any of these forms of government is carried out on the territory of a country that is organized in a certain way. The state-political structure provides for the administrative organization of the territory. Thus, a mechanism of vertical relations is formed - between central and local government bodies. Historically, the following forms of territorial administrative organization are known: unitarism, federalism, confederalism.

The state system is the administratively and nationally organized territory of the state, as well as the system of relations between central and regional bodies.

A unitary state is a single state entity. The main features of the unitary form of state education are the following: a single constitution, the norms of which are applied without any changes throughout the country; one system higher authorities state power; a unified top-down management system, which is subject to the government; unified legal system; dividing the territory into administrative-territorial units that do not have political independence. Emphasizing the “single” in each feature, we note that the degree of centralization in different countries may be different. It depends primarily on the political regime dominant in the country. So, in Lately high in many developed countries(Great Britain, France, etc.) there is a tendency towards decentralization of power, increasing the role of local authorities, and the development of amateur principles in solving many local problems.

Federation is a form government system a country that was formed on the basis of uniting into a union of state-political states (states, republics, provinces, cantons, lands), which have a legally defined amount of independence in various fields public life.

The main features of the federal form of government are: the territory in political and administrative terms is not one whole; Availability state entities, having a certain political and legal independence and generally constituting the territory of the state; the subjects of the federation are endowed with constituent power, that is, they are given the right to adopt their own constitutions; subjects of the federation have the right to issue legislative acts within the established competence; a subject of the federation has its own legal and judicial system; having dual citizenship; bicameral structure of the federal parliament.

Among the states with a federal form of structure (USA, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Austria, India, Australia, etc. States such as Russia and India combine territorial-political and territorial-national principles. In single-national ones countries the territorial-political principle of government reigns.

Federations can be built on a treaty and a constitutional basis.

Treaty federation - such associations of states that, according to the treaty, delegated a number of their powers to the central federal authorities and, if desired, can terminate this agreement at any time.

Constitutional federation is a form of association in which the powers of the center and local state-political entities are constitutionally determined, and power is divided between them.

The constitutional federation does not provide for the right of the subjects of the federation to withdraw from it. In the case when the desire to exit is realized by force, such actions lead to disintegration, collapse of the federation and other negative consequences. An example of this is the collapse of the USSR, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. In these countries, the political-territorial division was associated with the national-territorial one.

Federation as a form of government has always been the subject of discussion on issues of sovereignty of the federation and the subjects of the federation. The problem lies in the degree and scope of divisibility of sovereignty. The federal government concentrates in its hands activities related to defense, state security, its external relations, finance, labor organization, social protection population, etc. Local authorities are vested with the competence to organize local life. Supremacy in the distribution of competence (rights and responsibilities) remains with the federal constitution and legislation. Constitutional and other local legislation must comply with federal legislation.

A more complex form of federation is a confederation. Confederation - state legal association, union sovereign states, created for the purpose of coordinating actions to achieve certain goals defined at a given historical moment. Most often these are foreign policy and military goals. In contrast to a federation, a confederation does not have a center that makes binding government decisions regarding the subjects of the federation. An example of a confederation is Switzerland. Confederation is a less stable form of government. Confederations either disintegrate or become federations. Even Switzerland, where the confederal form has existed since the 13th century, in the 20th - beginning of XXI V. is increasingly gravitating towards federation.

For any structure, the state achieves high rates of development where the principles of democracy, legal and social content of the state are optimally combined and interact. Politicality government organization predetermines to a large extent the political nature of law, which is personified in the law. It is in the law that the fact of the chosen policy is enshrined.

Modern world transformations have brought to life the need to reconsider the relationship between state and law, which for decades was an ideological justification totalitarian regime in many countries of the world. Thus, law was considered as a product, an instrument, the main instrument of the state, with the help of which it carried out coercion, trying to ensure order in the country. Law, in accordance with the socialist normative concept of law, was a system of norms established and sanctioned by the state aimed at regulating social relations. So, the scheme of the approach was this: the state is primary, law is secondary, that is, law is the result of the creation of the state itself, its expression of will.

The overcoming of totalitarianism gave rise to new approaches to understanding the relationship between law and state. Their essence lies in the fact that law is primary, and the state is secondary. The right is not of state origin, but of social origin, since it is connected with the activities of people. The source of law is people. It is a person with his needs and interests, way of life that is the source and bearer of law. So, law has a social, human, and not state origin. It is a product of normal human activity. Therefore, if we consider it only in relation to the state and consider it a product of state activity, then the historical result of such a process will be nationalization, the bureaucracy of a person like a large cog state machine. In connection with this approach, the place and role of branches of law is being reconsidered. The main place is given primarily to private (including civil) law, and other branches play a supporting role relative to private law and are aimed at its provision and implementation.

The right is personified in the legislation of the state.

The process of creating a rule-of-law state is associated with the awareness of citizens’ desire for freedom, to curb the monster state, to the primacy of law over the state, to ensure rights and freedoms. The Germans in the concept of “legal statehood” (this word means “rule of law” in German) emphasize a negative attitude towards revolutionary ideas in relation to the state, on the recognition evolutionary path development of society, on the dominance of the constitutional foundations of “legal statehood”.

World civilization has accumulated extensive experience in the theory and practice of the rule of law. According to former French President F. Mitterrand, the rule of law is a system of democratic values ​​and legal foundations, consecrated by European culture. Story Ukrainian people on this occasion I must testify to the world one of my pages.

The creation of the Ukrainian state went through an extremely difficult historical path. After the collapse of Kievan Rus and the seizure of the Galician-Volyn principality by Polish-Lithuanian feudal lords, the process of development of Ukrainian statehood for a long time was interrupted. Only in the second half of the 17th century. part of the Ukrainian lands inhabited by Ukrainians was united into a state under the control of Bohdan Khmelnytsky. In order to establish itself in the difficult international situation of that time, the newly formed state entered into a military-political alliance with Russia. Subsequently, the agreement was violated by Russian tsarism. Ukraine was deprived of state independence and turned into a “Little Russian province.” Having liquidated the people's rightful, democratic Cossack republic - the Zaporozhye Sich, which was too sharp a contrast to Russian absolutism, Catherine II transported the hetman's symbols to St. Petersburg. In those days, socio-political thought in Ukraine was hatching projects independent state. Ukrainian hetman in exile Pylyp Orlyk developed the first democratic constitution in Ukraine “Pacts and the Constitution of the Rights and Liberties of the Zaporozhian Army”, its text was announced on May 5, 1710 at the Celebrations of the election of Pylyp Orlyk as hetman. The Constitution is imbued with a liberal and democratic spirit, which places it among the most interesting attractions of European political thought of that time.

The Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk defined the borders of the Ukrainian state, provided for the establishment of national sovereignty, ensuring human rights, recognition of the inviolability of the components and factors of a legal society, namely: the unity and interaction of the legislative (elected General Council), executive (hetman, whose actions are limited by law, general foreman and elected representatives from each regiment) and judicial power, accountable and controllable. Install

All scientists note that it is impossible to define the concept of a state that would reflect all the signs and properties of a state characteristic of all its periods in the past, present and future. At the same time, as world science has proven, any state has a set of universal characteristics that manifest themselves at all stages of its development. The same signs were defined above.

Summarizing them, we can formulate a definition of the concept of state. State- this is a unified political organization of society that extends its power over the entire territory of the country and its population, has a special administrative apparatus for this, issues mandatory orders for everyone and has sovereignty.

The essence of the state. The relationship between universal and class principles in the state.

To reveal the essence of the state means to identify the main thing that determines its objective necessity in society, to understand why society cannot exist and develop without the state. When considering the essence of the state, two aspects must be taken into account:

2. Whose interests – class, universal, religious, national – does this organization serve?

There are two approaches to studying the essence of the state:

1. Class approach .

The class approach is that the state is viewed as a machine for maintaining the dominance of one class over another, and the essence of such a state lies in the dictatorship of the economically and politically dominant class. This concept of the state reflects the idea of ​​the state in its own sense as an instrument of the dictatorship of the ruling class. This situation has been directly or indirectly proven by world science and historical practice. Thus, the slave state in its essence was a political organization of slave owners, the feudal state was an organization of feudal lords and other wealthy classes, the capitalist state in the first stages of its development acted as an organ for expressing the interests of the bourgeoisie. The state here is used for narrow purposes as a means of ensuring mainly the interests of the ruling class. The primary satisfaction of the interests of any other classes cannot cause resistance from opposing classes, so the problem arises of constantly removing this resistance through violence and dictatorship. Speaking about the socialist state at the stage of the dictatorship of the proletariat, it should be noted that the state must implement this dictatorship in the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population. Unfortunately, many theoretical provisions about the socialist state remained a theory, since in practice the state apparatus did not serve the broad strata of the working people, but the party nomenklatura elite.

2. Whole-society or whole-human approach .

Another approach of the state is to consider the essence of the state from universal human and social principles. The peculiarity of slave-owning, feudal, capitalist states in the first stages of development is that they, first of all, expressed the economic interests of the minority of slave owners, feudal lords, and capitalists. However, as society improves, the economic and social base of the state expands, the coercive element narrows, and for objective reasons the state turns into the organizing force of society, which expresses and protects the personal and general interests of members of society. Contrary to the predictions of political scientists about the crisis and “decay” of capitalism, about imperialism as the eve and threshold of the socialist revolution, capitalist society survived and managed to successfully overcome crisis phenomena and the decline in production. Capitalism as social order gradually strengthened and changed significantly. He turned out to be able to accept and actually implement progressive ideas of social development into practice. Society that emerged after World War II in developed countries Western Europe and Asia has already become qualitatively different. It differed significantly from the capitalist society of the times of Marx and Engels and the imperialist society that Lenin studied. Modern Western society is sometimes more oriented toward socialism than countries that call themselves socialist. The state mechanism has turned from a tool, a means of predominantly implementing common affairs, into an instrument for achieving agreement and compromise. In the activities of the state, such important general democratic institutions as the separation of powers, the rule of law, transparency, pluralism of opinions, and so on begin to come to the fore.

Thus, in the essence of the state, depending on historical conditions, the foreground can come to the fore as a class principle, which is typical for exploitative states, or as a general social principle, which is increasingly manifested in modern post-capitalist and post-socialist states.

Each of these aspects deserves attention. Indeed, the understanding of the state as an organization of political power emphasizes that it stands out among other subjects of the political system special qualities, represents the official form of organization of power, and the only organization of political power that governs the entire society. At the same time, political power is one of the signs of a state. Therefore, it is inappropriate to reduce the concept of state to it.

From the outside, the state acts as a mechanism for exercising power and managing society, as an apparatus of power. Consideration of the state through the direct embodiment of political power in the apparatus, the system of organs, also does not fully reveal its concept. Such consideration does not take into account the activities of the system of local self-government bodies and others.

The state is a special political reality. Revealing the content of the concept of state, it should be brought under such a generic concept as political organization. If the state until the middle of the 19th century can be defined as the political organization of the ruling class, then the later, and especially modern, state is the political organization of the entire society. The state becomes not just a power based on coercion, but an integral organization of society that expresses and protects individual, group and public interests, ensures organization in the country based on economic and spiritual factors, and realizes the main thing that civilization gives people - democracy, economic freedom , freedom of an autonomous individual.

Basic approaches to defining the concept of state

Political-legal - representatives of this approach take the organizational aspect of the state as a basis and consider it as a special specific organization of public power expressed in the system of state bodies.

Sociological - within the framework of which the state is an organization of all members of society who are united into a single whole through political, managerial processes and relationships.

The state is a sovereign, political-territorial organization of public power that manages society and has for this purpose an apparatus, enforcement agencies and a system of legislation and taxation.

Signs of the state:

1. The state assumes the existence of a certain territory, i.e. plot earth's surface delineated by boundaries on which it exercises its power. The territory of the state includes land, subsoil, airspace, and waters. The territory of the state is recognized as the territory of diplomatic missions, the territory of military, air and sea vessels, wherever they are located, civil air and sea ​​vessels located in neutral waters. Also, the territory of the state is recognized as the territory of spaceships.

2. The state presupposes a population, which includes people living in the territory of this state. The legal connection between the state and the population is carried out through the institution of citizenship (nationality). The creation of this connection is a set of mutual rights, duties and responsibilities.

3. The state is distinguished by the presence of public authority, separated from the people. This power is represented by the state apparatus, i.e. system of government bodies that exercise this power.

4. The state assumes the existence of a system of taxes and fees, i.e. gratuitous mandatory payments to the state, on the basis of which the material and financial base of the state’s activities is formed. The totality of income and expenses constitutes the state budget.

5. The state has a monopoly (exclusive) right (ability) to issue binding and executive decisions, which can appear either in the form of regulatory shields (laws, by-laws) or in the form of individual acts (court verdicts, decisions of administrative bodies).

6. Only the state has armed forces and coercive institutions (army, police, prison). Armed formations are one of the the most important factors ensuring effective power. They perform the function of legalized coercion, for which they have the appropriate means.

7. Only the state is the representative of the entire society. It personifies society and speaks on its behalf.

The state has a special political and legal property - sovereignty. Sovereignty consists of the supremacy of state power within the country and the independence of the state outside its borders.

Signs of sovereignty are:

independence- the ability to independently make decisions within the country and outside while observing the norms of national and international law;

completeness(otherwise: universality) - the spread of state power to all spheres state life, for the entire population and public organizations of the country;

indivisibility the power of the state within its territory - the unity of power as a whole and only its functional division into branches of power: legislative, executive, judicial; direct implementation of government orders through their channels;

independence in external relations - the ability to independently make decisions outside the country while complying with international law and respecting the sovereignty of other countries,

equality in external relations - the presence in international relations of the same rights and obligations as other countries.

inalienability- the impossibility of arbitrary alienation of legitimate and legal power, only the existence of the possibility enshrined in law to delegate the sovereign rights of the state to local government bodies (in a unitary state), subjects of the federation and local government bodies (in federal state),

Any state has sovereignty, regardless of the size of its territory, population size, form of government and structure. State sovereignty is a basic principle of international law. It found its expression in the UN Charter and other international legal documents.

8. has formal details - official symbols: flag, coat of arms, anthem.

Thus, The state is a sovereign political-territorial organization of society that has power, which is exercised by the state apparatus on the basis of legal norms that ensure the protection and coordination of public, group, and individual interests, relying, if necessary, on legal coercion.

State- is a sovereign, political-territorial organization of public power that manages society and has for this purpose a management apparatus, enforcement agencies and a system of legislation and taxation.

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