Month: January 2023

Development of science in the field of means of warfare, communication and production has been found to help in strengthening the organized power of state. MacIver also hints that scientific inventions such as gunpowder and the printing press affected distribution of power and strengthened the state. Means of communication has helped the state evolve better… Continue reading Development of Science

MacIver in his, The Modern State, observes that growth of wealth led to emergence of big cities and towns. This, in turn, resulted in trade, commerce, industries and other economic activities. These economic changes also impacted social ties and family bonds. Increasingly, city-based and non-family bonds started getting importance. The city and the urban area emerged… Continue reading Urbanization

Nationality, as Garner says, ‘is employed to designate a group or portion of the population which is united by racial or other bonds’.83 Lord Bryce, whom Garner cites, includes language and literature, ideas, customs and traditions in this category of bonds or ties—cultural and psychological bonds. It is possible that nationality, at times, can become the… Continue reading Nationality and race

If we accept that need for an organized authority contributed in the emergence of the state, then relationship between the people and the organized authority of the State needs to be defined. It is possible that in early history, loyalty might have been due to tribal or clan or religious affiliations. Due to forced subjection,… Continue reading Citizenship

It is possible that amongst the people related either by tribal or clan or later by territorial connections, wartime compulsions for security and protection might have given birth to a feeling for a central leader or authority. The common purpose behind this feeling might have been protection and security of life, personal resources and may… Continue reading Political consciousness

Undeniably, force, at times in connivance with cunningness or otherwise, has the effect of ensuring domination of a few or a group or a person over others. Historically, force has been the weapon of slavery and colonialism, and has served as an institution of coercive means. Physical or economic power of social groups or individuals… Continue reading Force/power and conquest

Primitive social groups may not have been conducive to the idea of personalized property. Means of livelihood and instruments for generating livelihood must have been rudimentary (food gathering, hunting, collecting fire woods for cooking, warmth and protection and animal skins for clothing). Given the scarcity of resources, foods and other material items, life could be… Continue reading Institution of property and emergence of social classes

Kinship-based social grouping with patriarchal authority may tend to follow ancestor worship. The initial reaction of awe, fear and incomprehension towards nature (sun, moon, stars, citing of undefined lights in sky at night and the universe itself) and its events (lightening, roaring and bursting of clouds, heavy rain, volcanoes, floods, tides, etc.) as well as… Continue reading Religion and customary laws

Anthropological (related to humankind in all its aspects), ethnographical (related to ethnic groups) and sociological (related to social aspects of human life) studies suggest that social organization in the primitive societies was/is kinship-based. Kinship refers to blood and family relationships (such as father, mother brother, sister), unlike the marital relationships (wife, husband) or contractual relationships… Continue reading Kinship

MacIver identified kinship/family, the institution of property, custom (including religion and magic)/customary law, power/conquest and citizenship as contributing to the historical evolution of the state. To these factors, some more contributing factors like political consciousness, urbanization, class division, race and nationality, development of science, etc., have been added. For our understanding, we may group these… Continue reading Factors which influenced the historical evolution of the state