Briefly discuss the different perspectives on the State.

  Changing Perspectives on the Nature of State: A state is a historical institution. It is an outcome of an evolutionary process. Various essential elements have contributed to the development of the state.

The nature of state keeps on changing with the passage of time. It changes according to social, economic and political situations. The nature of state can be studied in light of the following perspectives:

Liberal Perspective :

Liberalism is an important political ideology. It was started in 16th century. Economists like Adam Smith and Ricardo have contributed a lot to promote this ideology. Early liberals like Hobbes. Locke, Benthan and J.S. Mill amongst others have also contributed a lotito spread this ideology.

The origin and development of this ideology cannot be related with any one political thinker. It advocates freedom of the people.  The prominent features of this ideology are representative democracy, rule of law, human rights, secularism and struggle for political power. The liberal perspective is still developing further.

In liberalism, man is core focus in any social set-up. It focuses on maximum freedom of the people. It also emphasizes minimum control and interference of state in the lives of people. It supports capitalism and also favours that state should not interfere in the economic activities of the people i.e., policy of ‘Laissez-faire’.

There should be free and open competition. Liberals believe that state is a necessary evil because its rules and regulations infringe on the freedom of people. But it is also necessary as it performs some unique functions that no other institution can perform. It works for the welfare and development of the people wherein the state accomplishes most of their needs.

According to early liberals like James Mill and Benthan, state is not a necessary evil but it is a social and ethical institution. Rule of law and societal peace can only be established when there is interference of state in different spheres of people’s lives. It develops such circumstances that are vital for the development of people.

Marxist Perspective:

According to Marxists, a state is not an ethical or social institution. It does not represent people’s needs and will. State is an invention of that class of society that owns the means of production. It is a political invention for the protection of interests of this strong economic class. State is an outcome of historical development. It has originated due to class distinction in the society.

Industrial development led to feudalism and capitalist economy. This strengthened the class distinction and hence class distinction became the main reason of state’s origin. According to some Marxist views, state and its bureaucratic institutions are working independently as an autonomous body.

State is also working according to various sections of society. As per today’s Marxist approach, state works for its own interests and for other powerful pressure groups. In a nutshell, Marxists believe that state protects the interest of the ruling class, whatever it may be in any form.

Neo-liberal Perspective:

The base of this perspective is public choice or public agent theory. This theory assumes that state works for the interest and welfare of special groups. State uses its authority to fix economic transactions for their benefit. It advocates market model and competitive elements like marketisation.

It assumes that government is the best which rules the least’. It favours that market is superior over the state. There is a need to cut down the size of administrative machinery and more active participation of non-governmental agencies. For this, it promotes privatization. It works to widen the gap between politics and administration and on the other hand, bringing public administration close to private administration.

So the main focus is on management and managerialism’. This perspective supports that state should play a minimum role in the economy but in developing countries/ economies, state has to interfere in various aspects of peoples lives as significant number of them are poor, deprived and disadvantaged. So here, state becomes a prime institution as it performs the functions of defence, security welfare, infrastructure development, social justice and economic growth.

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