How is the State Viewed?

Various streams of thoughts view the State differently—‘organism or biological personality’, ‘juristic personality’, or ‘in terms of its teleos or final purpose’, or ‘artificial contrivance’ or a ‘class instrument’, etc. The idealists and organic theorists exalt the State as moral and spiritual; the social contractualists and the utilitarians as useful instrument for human beings for protection of liberty of individuals or as provider of maximum happiness and the Marxian and anarchists as an exploitative instrument.

The view that the State is a moral or spiritual agency is best reflected in the writings of Plato, Aristotle and Hegel. It attributes a purpose of its own to the State to which however, the purpose of the individual is linked. The State as artificial contrivance and as a means to be used for the purpose of individual ends is best illustrated in the social contractualist tradition of Hobbes and Locke and in the utilitarian tradition of Bentham. The State is considered a means for the protection, security and happiness of the individual. The State as a class instrument and as a means in the hand of the dominant economic class to exploit and subjugate the proletariat is reflected in Marxian and anarchist writers.

As the views of the social contractualist and utilitarian stream and the Marxian stream have been illustrated at relevant places. We may briefly survey the Organismic, Juridical and Idealistic views about the state.