State And Associations

An association is a group of persons who have a common purpose or purposes for which they organise themselves, it has, therefore, three elements; namely, a group of people, a common purpose or purposes, and common rules which organise the activities of the members. At crowd of people in the bazaar is not an association, because they have no common purpose and rules. A school, a university, a Trade Union, a church, or a literary club, etc. are associations. The State too is an association. But it is different from other associations, as shown by the following features:

Associations are voluntary, while the State is a compulsory association. A person can become member of several associations, but he or she will necessarily be a member of one State, in which he or she is either bom, or which he has adopted as his or her country. He can withdraw from the membership of any association as he likes, but he cannot leave his State without its permission.

(i) The State is a permanent association, while other associations are not necessarily so. Some of them last longer than other. For example, the Roman Catholic Church has existed for about 2,000 years. But most other associations are temporary. They cease to exist when their purposes are achieved. The State continues to exist for long time. It can be destroyed by conquest, revolution or decay. For example, the Mughal Empire ceased to exist when overthrown by the British and the Roman Empire or the Abbasid Caliphate ceased to exist when they decayed and disintegrated into several succession States.

(ii) The stole and associations differ in their purposes. All associations have definite and limited purposes and interests. The State has the general purpose of maintaining Peace and order and promoting the happiness and welfare of all of its citizens. The State is essentially and order-giving organisation.

(iii) The State is sovereign and possesses coercive power to compel obedience to its law by punishment Associations are voluntary and cannot compel obedience to their rules by fear and force of punishment. They may impose a fine, or expel the recalcitrant members, but the State alone can impose punishment on law recalcitrant members, but the State alone can impose punishment on law breakers to the extent of life imprisonment or death. In other words, State has unlimited power, while the associations are either political bodies, or they possess powers, defined and limited by the authority and law of the State.

(iv) The State controls all other associations, while none of them can control the State. It is supreme over all of them, because it is sovereign, it is an omnipotent association. No other association can claim such powers.

(v) The State has also the power to create any association and prescribe its powers and functions, e.g., it sets up universities.

(vi) The State is a territorial association. It includes several other associations within its boundaries. But other associations are not territorial in structure and purpose. Some of them exist within the confines of a State but other may extend beyond its boundaries. The jurisdiction of the State ends at its frontiers, but a voluntary association may regularize the conduct of its members dwelling in several States, e.g., Red Cross, Rotary club or Universal Postal Union.

Revolt against the use of the term ‘State government, sovereignty’

In the nineteenth century, when the science of politics rally came into being, political scientists, with their legal-institutional approach, “accepted a more or less rigid concept of the State as a component of specific mechanisms of government” They applied this term to the States which existed in Europe and to those which existed in ancient Greece and Rome. Accordingly, these European States possessed the attributes of well- defined territorially sovereignty. They also did not bother to study whether there were States in Asia and Africa, like those of the European States. Political Science was then only concerned with States in the Western world, i.e. Europe and North America.

 

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