The State: definitions, the State and nation, society, government and association, theories of origin, functions and the welfare State
LUG-102 Jurisprudence — Legal Method, Indian Legal System and Basic Theory of Law, Unit I: Definition of State. · LLB · 60 min
What the State is (Aristotle, Bodin, Holland, Salmond, Garner, Woodrow Wilson, Laski, Austin, MacIver), how it differs from the nation, society, government and other associations, how it is said to have arisen (divine right, force, the social contract of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, the evolutionary theory, the Indian accounts in the Mahabharata and Kautilya), what it does (Salmond's primary functions of war and the administration of justice and secondary functions of legislation and taxation; Garner's constituent and ministrant functions; the police State and the welfare State) and how the Indian Constitution's Parts III and IV make India a welfare State under law. It answers the 2024-25 and 2025-26 questions on the concept of the State.
Objectives
- Define the State in the words of the leading jurists and political scientists and identify the common elements.
- Distinguish the State from the nation, society, government and voluntary associations.
- Explain and criticise the divine right, force, social contract and evolutionary theories of the origin of the State.
- Describe the primary and secondary functions of the State (Salmond) and explain the welfare State under the Indian Constitution.
Slides
- What the State is: the definitions
- More definitions and the common elements
- State, nation, society, government, association
- Origin of the State I: divine right and force
- Origin of the State II: the social contract
- Origin of the State III: the evolutionary theory and the Indian accounts
- Functions of the State: Salmond's primary and secondary functions
- The welfare State under the Indian Constitution
- The State and the law: who is above whom?
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