Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/595

* STATANT. 509 STATE. the face be turned to the spectator, it is said to be slalant guidaiit, or in the case of a stag, at gaze. See Heraldry. STATE (OF. estat, Fr. ctat, from Lat. status, state, condition, from stare, to stand; connected with Gk. iffrdrai, histaiiai, Skt. stlvii, OChureli Slav, stuti, OHG. stun, sten, stantaii, Ger. stehen, Goth., AS. S'tandan, Eng. stand). The. The theory of the State in its broadest sense may be taken to cover the whole field of political philos- ophy, involving the comprehensive examination of the laws underlying political phenomena. (See Political Science.) In a narrow-er sense, the theory of the State is concerned primarily with the essential nature of the State, its origin and basis, its various forms, and proper function or purpo.se. The essential elements of the State, together distinguishing it from other social groups, are generally considered to be the following: a ter- ritorial basis serving as the physical foundation of the State, a population constituting its citi- zenship, and a more or less complete form of political organization exercising the power of life and death. Finally, the State is a sovereign body, being supreme over all persons on its terri- tory and independent internationally. It is also held by some authorities that the State is an organism or a person. The origin and basis of the State have been explained in various ways for the purpose of jiistifying or condemning various political sys- tems. It has been held that the State owes its genesis and eontiniuuice to the will or command of God, a doctrine that has been used in the de- fense of all forms of government, including de- mocracy. The origin of the State has been traced by others to the family, and explained as a devel- opment of the power of the early patriarchs. Others have maintained that the State was created by and exists in virtue of a voluntary contract to which the parties were either (1) the government on the one hand and the jicople on the other; or (2) separate individuals who agreed to form a political society and a govern- ment by a contractual process. Again it is argued that the foundation and support of the State is superior force, which in its first and last analysis is the essential fact in a political sys- tem. The modern theory is that the State owes its being to an historical process in which many or all of the foregoing factors may have played a part as the varying conditions required. The explanation of the present existence of a coercive power over individuals is generally found in a variety of motives for obedience. Of these the principal ones are custom or habit, fear, utility or the calculation of accruing advantages and dis- advantages, and the element of conscious and rational consent. The general tendency of politi- cal development is toward a State based on gen- eral perception of its utility, and consequent consent to its laws. It may be added that the anarchistic school denies the existence of any rational justification for the State, demanding its complete abolition, and the substitution of some such principle as that of 'justice' or 'hu- manity' for that of coercive power. The forms of the State are three, monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, according as political power rests with one, the few-, or the many. All other forms of government may be resolved into the three forms enumerated. Thus, theoc- rac}' is any one of these three forms in which the rulers are supposed to possess a special di- vine sanction for their government. The so- called federal State may be resolved either (1) into a union of many States for certain general purposes: or (2) one State with a dual form of government and with sovereignty vested in the group as a whole. Plutocracy and oligarchy are perverted forms of aristocracy. 'Constitutional.' 'despotic,' 'free,' when applied to States, have reference to the method in which the govern- ment is organized or administered, rather than to the form of the State, and might be applied to any of the three types. In recent years con- siderable attention has been given to the classi- fication of various forms of State associations or groups. Of these the most im])ortant are the Personal-Union, the Real-Union, the Con- federac.v, the Protectorate, and tlic Federal or Composite State. (G. Jellinek, Die Lehre von den Staatenverbindmigen : H. Rehm, Allgemeine Staatslehre) . The function or purpose of the State has been variously interpreted. It has been held that the proper function of the State is the development of the moral or religious nature of its subjects, and that this should be the controlling purpose of its activity. Again it has been maintained that the function of the State is nierel.v to pre- serve order among its citizens and to protect them from external attack, leaving all else to the domain of individual initiative. It is also held that the function of the State is to further the general welfare of its subjects, including in this all sides of their life. In modern times the contest lies between the advocates of the 'legal' State and those of the 'paternal' State, holding respectively the individualistic and the social- istic conceptions of the function of organized political societ}'. One of these theories has been carried to the extreme of a demand for anarchy, and the other to the opposite pole of a demand for the extension of the functions of .sovenmient to the immediate control of industrial activity. At pi'esent the most widelv accepted doctrine is that no general principle governing the activ- ity of the State can be laid down, but that each ca.se of proposed State action must be decided in accordance with what appears to be the great- est good to the greatest niunber. The theorv of the State has passed through several important stages in the course of the de- velopment that has brought it up to its )>resent position. A philosophy of politics was first de- veloped by the classical school of which Plato,. Aristotle, and Cicero were the leading exponents. The most marked characteristics of the political thinking of this time were the development of political theory from the city as a basis — the city State — the complete subordination of the in- diviilual to the State in the discussion of politi- cal proldems, and the constant confusion nf po- litical and ethical theory. In the next great period, that of the ^liddlc Ages, political tlicnry was interpreted in the light of Christian theologv'. A system of politics was deduced from the joint anthoritv of the Scrijitures. the writings of the Fathers, the philosophy of .ristotle. and the Roman law — all analvzed nnil presented with the subtlest refinement of which Scholasticism was capable. The point around which political