The Historical-Evolutionary theory does not appreciate that origin of the State is due to some social contract or force or divine dispensation alone. Rather, it adopts a multi-causal approach and attributes the origin of the State to a variety of causes. These relate not only to force, war and power and religion but also to other social-economic factors. It has been noted that ‘there is no reason to regard the State historically as a universal feature of social organization’ and this has validity due to the fact that ‘many relatively primitive peoples lacked either a distinctly territorial basis of organization or any permanent institutions of command, coercion, or punishment’.62 This is to suggest that a journey from statelessness to complex state organization must have been achieved through a variety of factors. A general statement of the Evolutionary-Historical theory may be given as follows:
- It treats the origin and development of the State neither as a result of divine dispensation nor of force, nor of contract but of a variety of factors, a multi-causal approach.
- It deals with forces and factors that worked in primitive conditions of human life and helped evolution of institution of the state. It seeks to map various factors that are responsible for further development and transition of the State from one stage to another—primitive to the modern stage.
- This approach is based on anthropological, sociological, historical and economic evidences.
- As the State is treated as a product of society or social factors, State and society are differentiated.
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