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In international law and international relations, a state is a political entity possessing sovereignty, i.e. not being subject to any higher political authority. But, as noted below, the "state" can also be defined in terms of domestic conditions, specifically the role of the monopolization of force within a country. Of course, different political philosophies differ in their interpretation of the actual and ideal roles of the state.
The definition of " state" in the meaning of political subdivisions of some countries, is related as it emphasizes the intention of a confederation where these state governments are seen as possessing some powers independently of the federal government. Often these states existed before their creation of a federal régime.
In casual language, the idea of a "state" and a "country" are usually regarded as synonymous, although some speakers, notably in the United States, make efforts to use "country" or "nation" for the sovereign entities. Others would primarily understand "the State" as a synonym for "the Government", or be careful to distinguish between a territorial " country" and a " nation" of people. Confusingly, the terms "national" and "international" are both used as technical terms applying to states, see country.
The legal criteria for statehood are not obvious. A document that is often quoted on the matter is the Montevideo Convention from 1933, whose article 1 states:
Also, in article 3 it very clearly states that statehood is independent of recognition by other states. This is the declarative theory of statehood. While the Montevideo is a regional American convention and has no legal effect outside the Americas, some have nonetheless seen it as an accurate statement of customary international law.
On the other hand, article 3 of the convention is attacked by the advocates of the constitutive theory of statehood, where a state exists only insofar as it is recognized by other states. Which theory is correct is a controversial issue in international law. An example in practice was the collapse of central government in Somalia in the early 1990sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s Years: Events and trends Computers, technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other techn: the Montevideo convention would imply that the state of Somalia no longer existed, and the subsequently declared republic of SomalilandSoomaaliland Republic of Somaliland ( In Detail) National motto: None Official language Somali Capital Hargeisa President Dahir Riyale Kahin Area Total 137,600 km² Population Total Density 2,500,000 3,500,00025/km² Independence Declared Recognition From S (comprising part of the so-called "former" Somalia) may meet the criteria for statehood. However the self-declared republic has not achieved recognition by other states.
Looked at from the point of view of an individual nation, the state is a centralized organization of the whole country. Those studying this dimension emphasize the relationship between the state and its people. The English political philosopherPolitical philosophy is the study of the fundamental questions about the state, government, politics, property, law and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and f Thomas HobbesThis article is about the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. For information on the Bill Watterson comic strip featuring a tiger named Hobbes, see Calvin and Hobbes. National Portrait Gallery, London) Thomas Hobbes ( April 5, 1588 December 4, 1679) was a noted En argued that in order to avoid a multi-sided civil war, in which life was "nasty, brutish, and short," individuals must necessarily surrender many of their rights -- including that of attacking each other -- to the "Leviathan", a unified and centralized state. In this tradition, Max WeberThis article is about the economist and sociologist. For the Swiss Federal Councilor, see Max Weber (politician); for the American cubist painter, see Max Weber (artist). Maximilian Weber ( April 21, 1864 June 14, 1920) was a German economist and sociolog and Norbert EliasNorbert Elias (born June 22, 1897 in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland); died August 1, 1990 in Amsterdam) was a German sociologist whose work focused on the relationship between power, behavior, emotion, and knowledge over time. He influenced the Fig defined the state as an organization of people that has a monopoly on legitimate violenceThe monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force is a political concept formalized by the sociologist Max Weber, in his 1918 speech Politik als Beruf Politics as a Vocation . Weber argued that the state cannot be characterized by its ends, since there in a particular geographic area. Also in this tradition, the state differs from the " government": the latter refers to the group of people who make decisions for the state.
For Weber, this was an "ideal type" or model or pure case of the state. Many institutions that have been called "states" do not live up to this definition. For example, a country such as Iraq (in June-July 2004) would not be seen as truly having a state since the ability to use violence was shared between the U.S. occupiers and various militias and terrorist groups, while order and security were not maintained. The official Iraqi government had very limited military or police power of its own. (This situation has been called that of a " failed state.") The official Iraqi government also lacked sovereignty because of the important role of U.S. domination.
One of the most basic characteristics of a state is regulation of property rights, investment, trade and the commodity markets (in food, fuel, etc.) typically using its own currency. Although many states (by their own decision) increasingly cede these powers to trade bloc entities, e.g. North American Free Trade Agreement, European Union, it is always controversial to do so, and opens the question of whether these blocs are in fact simply larger states. The study of political economy, which evolved into the modern study of economics, deals with these specific questions in more detail.
However, although states are often influenced in this way, they are nonetheless much stronger in relation to international organizations or to other states than lower (substate) political subdivisions normally are. But the trend at the moment is for the power of superstate levels of governance to increase, and there is no sign of this increase abating. Many (especially those who favour constitutional theories of international law) therefore reject as outdated the idea of sovereignty, and view the state as just the chief political subdivision of the planet.
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