What is a country?

Cicero's Republic: The state is the cause of the people, and the people are the aggregate of many people based on the unity of law and interests.

Weber's "Economy and Society" (I): The state is an institutional power operation institution, which monopolizes legal individual coercion when implementing its rules.

Dugit: The state is a mass organization. In this organization, people are divided into rulers and ruled.

Bodin: The Republic of China is a sovereign country that manages public affairs.

Engels: The state is the political authority of the economically dominant class for class rule.

In a word, it is an abstract authority, which is based on violence or legitimacy, grows in society and is above society.

If we make a list of all the components in a country according to the scope, the position of the country is probably: society-politics-country-government.

The difference between the motherland and the country: the former is the concept of region, culture, history, religion, and sometimes nationality and race, while the country is the political authority.

The difference between the state and the government: In the relationship between the state and the government, sometimes the concepts of the state and the motherland are indistinguishable. When the division of labor is very clear, the state is greater than the government, especially the state is synonymous with the sovereign, and the government is only the public servant of the state, the executor of power and the entrusted person.

But in the international arena, the concept of state is much broader than domestic politics. At this time, the country is the subject of international law, the representative of the whole society within the country, and the representative of all the people in this country, which is very close to the motherland in domestic politics.

Section 1 the origin of the country

The state was not born with the civil society, it is the product of the development of human social life to a certain extent, or from the Marxist point of view, it is the product and expression of irreconcilable social contradictions. It should be a historical phenomenon, that is, it was born at a certain stage of the development of human society and will disappear at a certain stage.

There are two ways for western political circles to study the origin of a country. One is to compare the different political and social forms of human beings to see the particularity of modern countries relative to other forms of political organization. The first is to observe and describe the development track of western countries in history.

The result of the first way of thinking is to summarize the three characteristics of modern countries (namely, the three signs of the origin of the country):

1) Specialization of rulers and officials.

2) centralization of power center. At the same time, a unified and pyramid-shaped legal system (in a country ruled by law: constitution-law-regulations-administrative orders) or normative system has been formed nationwide.

3) The institutionalization, depersonalization and depersonalization of political power. This first means the separation of abstract public power from rulers: rulers are not countries, not public power itself, but only its executors or representatives in a certain period. It also means that the exercise of public power should be strictly limited within the statutory scope, and its use should strictly abide by the existing laws, rather than the personal likes and dislikes of the rulers, and all uncertain factors should be excluded.

Through the observation of the second way of thinking, we can see that the country grew up gradually in civil society and came into being to meet the needs of social development.

It has gone through the following processes: in the west, the city-state represented by the Greek city-state-empire (Macedonia or Rome)-nation-nation (Etat-Cité).

In the East, represented by China, countries appeared earlier and their forms rarely changed. The Qin Dynasty laid the foundation of China's modern state.

In the west, the establishment of a modern nation-state probably began in Britain and France in the13rd century, and its typical feature is the struggle between kingship, religious power and feudal power. In this process, the status of the state's independence from civil society has become increasingly prominent.

The first stage is the struggle between kingship and religious power;

The second stage is to eliminate the personal attachment of serfs and tenant farmers to the lords, so that the people of the whole country have only one superior: the king. After the revolution, this loyalty to the king was transformed into loyalty to the nation and loyalty to the motherland, and citizens in the modern sense appeared.

The third stage is the emergence of various political and administrative institutions, such as town councils and various advisory bodies (gradually evolved into government ministries), which is the beginning of modern bureaucracy.

The fourth stage is the increasing legalization of the relationship between the ruler and the ruled. This process can be counted from the British Magna Carta, and the petition of Rheinische Zeitung of 1628 and the Bill of Rights of 1689 were initially realized. It standardized political power and its application within the framework of written law, and later became the pioneer of representative system. By the North American War of Independence, especially the French Revolution, this process was basically completed: a written constitution was formulated and a civil rights bill was promulgated, so that individuals could resist the excessive behavior of the state.

In China, the state was formed much earlier than in Western Europe, without interruption as in the Middle Ages. Around the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and after the Warring States Period, the vassal states have embarked on the road of non-feudalism, and the basic characteristics and functions of the state have been possessed. After the Qin Dynasty unified China, this process basically ended. China at this time was certainly not a country ruled by law, but legalization was not the core feature of the country.

In the west, the motive force of the country's origin comes from conflicts and the countermeasures taken by various social actors in the face of conflicts. The first power comes from the military confrontation between lords after the disintegration of Caroline dynasty. The subsequent continuous interaction led to the concentration of state power.

The second driving force comes from economic development:15-1the rapid economic development in western Europe after the 6th century has caused the diversification of social classes and conflicts of interests. All classes cannot impose their will on each other, monopolize political power and economic power, and deny the interests of others. In order not to perish together, we have to compromise and negotiate, and have to turn to a relatively super but powerful public power.

These western European nation-states formed during the period of 15- 17 century, once established, faced with endless external threats and conflicts, and were in constant war (until 1945). In order to cope with the war, they need to increase taxes and institutionalize them, establish a complete and systematic bureaucratic system to govern internal affairs and mobilize the army, arouse the patriotism of the people, and establish a powerful standing army as Toynbee said. This mechanism makes the country more perfect, more modern and stronger.

Marxism has made its own unique explanation for the origin of the country.

Engels' Origin of Family, Private Ownership and State: "State is the product of social development to a certain stage; State means that this society has fallen into an insoluble self-contradiction, split into irreconcilable opposites, and cannot get rid of them. In order to prevent the opposites and classes of these conflicts of economic interests from destroying themselves and society in unnecessary struggles, they need a kind of power that is superficially superior to society, which should ease the conflict and keep it within the scope of "order"; This kind of power that comes from society but lives above society and is increasingly divorced from society is the country. "

Lenin's "State and Revolution": "State is the product and expression of irreconcilable class contradictions. When the class contradiction objectively reaches irreconcilable place, time and degree, the state will appear. On the other hand, the existence of the state shows the irreconcilable class contradictions. "

Engels believed that the state came into being on the basis of the disintegration of clan organizations, with both historical ties and principled differences.

The main difference is: 1) The country divides residents by region, while the clan divides by blood. 2) Establish special violence organs-army, police, courts, prisons, etc.

We can see that the core difference between Marxist classical writers and western bourgeois scholars lies in: the former thinks that the state is an irreconcilable class contradiction and a tool for one class to oppress another; The latter thinks that the state is the referee of interest conflicts between classes.

Section 2 Elements and country categories

As we have said, sometimes a country means not only exercising political power within a civil society, but also the society itself in a political sense, such as in international relations. It is in this sense that several French and German scholars at the beginning of the 20th century, such as Jelinek, Labande and Kare de Mahlberg, founded the theory of three elements of state, emphasizing the unity of political power, territory and people.

The theory of three elements of the state can be summarized as follows: when a nation lives in a fixed territory (often the same nation or has the same sense of identity) and exercises legitimate political power in this nation, there is a state.

The so-called territory is three-dimensional in the present world: territory, territorial sea and airspace.

As a basic element of a country, territory is not just a piece of land where people live. It also forms a part of the historical, cultural and religious memory of this country and this nation, is the symbol of this country, and is the link that connects people and makes them identify with each other. Sometimes, the latter role even leads to conflicts between different races and nationalities, such as Kosovo and Jerusalem.

The most ideal territorial boundary is of course the natural boundary: mountains and rivers. But more often, the borders of modern countries are treaty borders. 19-20th century, the sanctity of borders was widely recognized by the international community and became the carrier of national sovereignty. At the end of the 20th century, with the development of economy and the interdependence and communication among countries, the importance of borders has changed.

The so-called people, in the past, especially in western Europe, first referred to a nation. In modern times, it refers to all people who are subject to sovereign power. Can be a nation, can also include several ethnic groups; It can be a local, that is, a person who obtains this status through blood relationship, or a naturalized foreign immigrant. When they leave their country, they will not lose their citizenship.

People are not just subjects of the country. In modern countries, it is first of all an important role in political life and the only source of the legitimacy of a country's political power and sovereignty. According to natural law theory and modern democratic theory, it existed before the emergence of state power, or they created the country. In the domestic political field, people are more defined as citizens, that is, people who have the right to participate in political affairs. It transcends people's differences in economic status, culture and occupation, and gives people a new identity.

Legitimate political power (government) is an important role and legal person in a country's political life. Therefore, the will of the state is different from the personal will of the ruler. In domestic affairs, it manages people according to law, handles conflicts among people fairly, and handles relations with other domestic legal persons as the central authority. It monopolizes the legal force and unilaterally formulates legal norms, which is an authority. Of course, in a modern country ruled by law, public power must also operate within the scope of its laws.

Country classification:

In the anthropological sense, we can divide a country into a mono-ethnic country or a multi-ethnic country.

In the sense of political science, we can divide countries into monarchies or republics, democracies or autocratic countries.

In the political and economic sense, we can divide countries into liberal countries or socialism, state interventionism and state protectionism.

However, our classification here is in the sense of public law, that is, countries are divided into unitary countries-—Etat unitaire (centralization or decentralization) and federal countries-—Etat fédéral (there is also the so-called confederation of state, but here, confederation is not a country, but a national alliance, each of which retains sovereign power).

The basic feature of a unitary state is that the central government monopolizes all constitutional powers, especially legislative power and judicial power. In this sense, in fact, the unitary state is centralized.

A unitary state can be centralized or decentralized (the definition of decentralization is different from decentralization and federalism).

A federal state means that the central government and local governments share constitutional power, and the ways and degrees of sharing are not exactly the same in different countries.

As a social and political phenomenon and organizational entity, the state did not always exist, but only came into being when the society developed to a certain historical stage. The state came into being in the process of the disintegration of the clan system, and it is the product and expression of irreconcilable class contradictions. When the class contradiction objectively reaches irreconcilable place, time and degree, the state will appear. Members of society have developed from the same interests and equal relations to dividing oil wells according to different class status, which has caused irreconcilable opposition and conflict between classes, which is the result of the development of internal production methods and social relations. When human society entered the "Bronze Age", the first social division of labor appeared in social production, that is, the livestock tribe was separated from agriculture or other tribes. This makes clans, tribes or individuals begin to exchange some surplus living goods. In terms of production relations, private ownership has emerged, and society is divided into master and slave, exploiter and exploited for the first time. At the same time, the patriarchal family has become a force against the primitive clan. With the wide application of iron production tools in agriculture and handicrafts, the second social division of labor has emerged, that is, handicrafts have been separated from agriculture, which has led to the consolidation and development of slavery. Slaves have become the main labor force in fields and handicraft workshops; Individual families become social and economic units, resulting in a new polarization between the rich and the poor; The regularization of the war made the military leaders of tribal alliances permanent and gradually hereditary, and military democracy appeared, which was a transitional form from clan management organs to state management organs. The third social division of labor is that with the development of exchange and commodity production, a class specializing in exchange has emerged in society-the merchant class, and commerce has become an independent department. This is a decisive and important division of labor for the country. It has caused two results: first, the emergence of metal currency in the development of commodity exchange has enabled non-producers to gain new means of ruling producers and their production, and wealth has been more concentrated in the hands of a few people, so that freemen are divided into exploited rich people and exploited poor people according to wealth, and the differentiation of social members has reached a very intense level; Second, the flow of business activities, land sales and earning a living has brought together the residents of the original clan and tribe, resulting in changes in social structure and intensification of contradictions among social members, especially because the conflict of interests between free men and slaves, the exploited rich and the exploited poor is becoming increasingly acute, and the clan system, which was originally produced without class opposition and coercion, is powerless in the face of class conflicts. Therefore, there is a need for a third force, ostensibly above the conflicting classes, to suppress their open conflicts, so that class struggle can be carried out in a legal form in the economic field, and then the clan system will be blown up by the division of labor and its consequences, that is, society will split into irreconcilable class struggle. Therefore, Engels pointed out: "The state says that this society has fallen into an insoluble self-contradiction, split into irreconcilable opposites, and is unable to get rid of them. In order to get rid of these conflicting opposites and classes of economic interests, and not to destroy ourselves and society in unnecessary struggles, we need a force that is superficially superior to society. This force should ease the conflict and control it within the scope of "order." This kind of power that comes from society but pretends to be above society and is increasingly divorced from society is the country. " Shan Lenin summed it up more clearly: "The state is the product and expression of irreconcilable class contradictions. When class contradictions objectively reach irreconcilable levels, the state comes into being. Conversely, the existence of the state has caused irreconcilable class contradictions. " This exposition shows the basic viewpoint of Marxism on governing the country. First, the state is an organization of class society. This mainly explains the time problem of the existence of the country, that is, the time of the country's emergence and the time of its demise. The core is to explain that the state is a historical phenomenon. The state does not always exist, it is the product of social development to a certain historical stage. It is produced with the development of production, the emergence of private ownership, the formation of class and the irreconcilable class contradictions. The state is a unique phenomenon in class society. As long as there is class and class struggle in society, there must be a country. The existence and development of class and class struggle determines the existence and development of the country. In the future, class and class contradictions will disappear, and the country will inevitably die on its own. This is the inevitable law of the country's emergence, development and demise. Second, the state is class rule. This explains the essence of the country, that is, the class nature of the state power, which class of state power the country is, or which class of dictatorship it is. The essence of feudal state is the dictatorship of the landlord class; The essence of capitalist countries is bourgeois dictatorship; The guarantee of socialist countries is the dictatorship of the proletariat. As a social organization ruled by class, the state, although ostensibly representing the whole society, is actually in the hands of the ruling class Yin. Politics is the concentrated expression of economy, and economic rule inevitably requires political rule. The state is the organ of the economic ruling class to realize its will. The economically dominant class, with the help of the special organization of the state, has also achieved political dominance and oppressed the ruled class. The economic rule of a class depends on political rule because the power of political rule has its own characteristics. First of all, political rule is the resultant force of the ruling class and the embodiment of the collective will and strength of the ruling class. Political rule is manifested in the rule of the people, that is, the relationship between the ruled and the whole country, and the ruled obeys the collective will and strength of the ruling class. Secondly, political rule is an organized force of the ruling class. The will of the ruling class has risen to the will of the state through certain systems and procedures, which is manifested in the laws and orders of the state and is forcibly accepted and observed by the ruling class. Of course, individuals and groups within the ruling class are not allowed to invade at will. Therefore, political rule is achieved through "national will", and national will is the main content of political rule. Third, the state is a machine. Here, Marxism uses the state machine to illustrate that the state is an organic whole organized by many parts to realize class rule, and it is a special organizational system composed of certain institutions. The state machine is different from other social organizations because the state has the political power to force the ruled class to obey the will of the state. The coercive power of the state comes from the people who exercise power (state officials) and the coercive organs that realize power. Taxation and national debt have maintained and strengthened them economically and materially. This special power of death has become the core of the state machine, which, together with other organs, constitutes all state institutions. On the other hand, the particularity of state power is also manifested in its sovereignty. Marxism believes that sovereignty is sovereignty, and its ownership is determined by the oath of the country. Sovereignty belongs to any class in a country that holds sovereignty. In international relations, sovereignty is an important principle of inter-state relations. Sovereignty represents the independence of a country's power, which shows that the country has the highest power to handle internal and external affairs independently. At the same time, state power is universally binding. Under normal circumstances, the ruling class always raises its will to the national will through its state power, making it standardized and cultural, becoming a code of conduct that everyone must abide by and universally binding on all members of society. This feature of state power distinguishes the state from other social groups, and also distinguishes the state institution as a concrete manifestation of state power from other social and political organizations. In a word, the scientific definition of the state by Marxism shows the historical law of the existence of the state, reveals the essence of the state, and fundamentally exposes the hypocrisy of all exploiting class thinkers, especially bourgeois thinkers, who describe the state as a social organization beyond class. The socialist country is the highest type of country in human history, and its functions are the concentrated expression of the essence of the socialist country and the historical task of the socialist country. Due to the nature and historical tasks of a socialist country, it is determined that the socialist country has three basic functions: First, to suppress hostile forces and elements that destroy and resist socialism. Second, organize socialist economic construction and cultural construction, that is, the construction of material civilization and spiritual civilization and the construction of socialist democratic politics. Third, defend the country, prevent foreign aggression and subversion, and safeguard world peace. The three functions of a socialist country are not immutable. In different historical stages of socialist development, due to the development of domestic and international situations, the main contradictions and specific tasks of domestic society have changed, and the functions of socialist countries have also changed; Different social principal contradictions and specific tasks lead to different state functions occupying a dominant position. At present, the main contradiction between China and society is the contradiction between people's growing material and cultural needs and backward social production; Its work focuses on socialist modernization centered on economic construction. During this period, leading and organizing socialist economic construction, socialist cultural construction and socialist political democracy construction are the main functions. With the continuous exploration of economic system reform, the fundamental requirement of the reform is to change the planned economy mode which was highly centralized and managed by administrative instructions in the past, and to establish a dynamic new socialist system. After years of theoretical exploration and reform practice, our party has clearly set the establishment of a socialist market economic system as the overall goal of reform. To establish a socialist market economic system, it is necessary to change the functions and ways of managing the economy, rather than not asking the government to manage the economy. Generally speaking, the fundamental way of transformation is to separate the representative function of state-owned asset owners from the administrative function of the government, and change the direct management of enterprises into indirect supervision, that is, to separate government from enterprises. In economic management, the main functions of the government are to make overall plans, master policies, guide information, organize and coordinate, provide services, inspect and supervise, use economic means, legal means and necessary administrative means to regulate social and economic operation, and create a good external environment for enterprises and markets. Government departments can no longer interfere in the production, operation and management of enterprises and other specific affairs. All problems that the market can solve are left to the market to adjust. At the same time, the government must study the forms, methods and systems of macro-control under the conditions of market economy, improve and strengthen macro-control, truly liberalize and invigorate the micro-level, and manage the macro-level. In national macro-control, planning is an important means. Especially in China, where the current market is underdeveloped and the market system is not perfect, planning also undertakes the function of cultivating and developing the market, so it is more necessary and important to use planning means. Under the socialist market economy system, we must give full play to the respective advantages and strengths of the plan and the market, avoid their shortcomings, and make them complement each other. To this end, we must renew our ideas and establish a plan and market operation mode that is compatible with the socialist market economic system. We should be soberly aware that the means of state planning mainly lie in macro-guidance, balance and regulation, with emphasis on economic development prediction, total regulation, main structure and productivity layout planning, concentrating necessary financial and material resources for key construction, and comprehensively using economic leverage to promote better and faster economic development. At the same time, we should be soberly aware that under socialist conditions, the market and market economy operate in an orderly manner under the control of national policies and plans, rather than completely spontaneously and freely. In short, there is no ready-made model for establishing a market economic system under socialist conditions, and we can only sum up experience in practice and make progress through experiments and explorations, which makes it even more necessary to give full play to the functions of socialist countries in organizing and managing the economy. What are the basic conditions for the demise of a country? Marxist historical materialism reveals the law of the development of human society, and reveals that the state is a historical phenomenon of human society, with its laws of occurrence and development. The objective law of extinction. The state is the irreconcilable product of class contradictions after the emergence of class. As a tool of class rule, the state is a unique political phenomenon in class society. As long as there is class and class struggle in society, there must be a country. Class is produced and exists under the condition that the local productivity of society has developed to a certain extent, but it has not been fully developed. With the high development of productive forces and the great enrichment of social products, the premise of class existence will be lost. At that time, the country will also perish with the complete elimination of classes and class struggles. Class extinction and national extinction are two aspects of the same process of social and historical development. Class extinction is the basic premise of national extinction, and national extinction is the inevitable result of class extinction. What needs to be emphasized is that not only the exploiting classes must be eliminated, but also the class differences must be further eliminated before the country will perish. This is because economically, although socialism has solved the problem of factory ownership and fundamentally eradicated the social situation in China, the level of productivity has not yet reached the level of greatly enriching materials, so the principle of "distribution according to work" can only be implemented in the field of distribution. There must be de facto inequality, and the existence of de facto inequality requires countries and laws. There is still a social division of labor in the socialist stage, and there is also social inequality in people's social and economic status. Only when social productive forces are highly developed and social wealth is extremely rich, labor is no longer a means of making a living, but the first need of life. There is no selfish competition between people, and public life rules replace legal norms to adjust the relationship between people. People are used to consciously obeying the rules of life, so there is no need for compulsory state organs. Only at this stage will we strengthen the democratic system and laws and gradually realize the democratization of the whole society. Only in this way can the public power of the state finally die out. The country is "self-extinction", which not only shows the gradual process of national extinction, but also shows the spontaneity of national extinction. Progressiveness shows that the country's demise is a long historical process. The so-called spontaneity means that the country's demise is not the result of someone issuing an order, but the result of the country's own function, which is the inevitable destination after the country gives full play to its function. It can be said that the country died out on its own after the class and class differences were eliminated.

The economically dominant class is a tool for political rule over the ruled class. It has political power (public power) and material appendages such as armed forces, prisons and compulsory organs that constitute this power. The state is a political institution with this political power as its core.

There have been different views and debates on the definition of state in the Concept of State. On the basis of in-depth study of the causes of the emergence of the state and its laws of development and change, and summing up the characteristics of various types of countries and their position and role in social life, Marxism puts forward a comprehensive and scientific definition of the state: "The state is a machine in which one class oppresses another class and one class controls all the ruled classes." This is V·I· Lenin's most comprehensive and accurate summary of Marx and Engels' view of state. It includes three meanings: ① The state is the organization of class society. This shows that the state is a historical phenomenon, which has never existed and will not exist forever. It is the result of the development of contradictions within society and the irreconcilable product of class contradictions after the emergence of private ownership and class formation. Similarly, the country will inevitably die with the complete elimination of class and class contradictions. This is the objective law of a country's emergence, development and demise. (2) the country is ruled by class. This points out the essence of the country, that is, which class of regime governs the country. In class society, the rule of any class comes from their economic rule, and the economic rule of a class must be maintained and consolidated by its political rule, so the state power always belongs to the economically dominant class. Political rule is the resultant force of the ruling class and the expression of the collective will and strength of the ruling class, which is generally realized through the will of the state. The essence of a slave country is the rule of the slave owner class, the essence of a feudal country is the rule of the landlord class, the essence of a capitalist country is the rule of the bourgeoisie, and the essence of a socialist country is the rule of the proletariat. (3) The country is a machine. It vividly points out that the country is an interconnected organic whole composed of many parts. The main difference between a state organization and other social organizations is that it has the ability to force the ruled class to obey the will of the state. There are officials (cadres) who exercise this power, military, police, courts, prisons and other compulsory organs that realize this power, and there are taxes and national debt that support officials and compulsory organs. These three items constitute an organizational force and material force, that is, a special social force.

Countries don't always have countries. Before the country appeared, human society was in a primitive state. Engels pointed out that the emergence of the state is the inevitable result of the development of human society. There are always two kinds of production in human society, that is, the production of material materials (food, clothing, housing and transportation and production tools) and the production of people (the reproduction of nations and the development of marriage and family forms). The social system is restricted by these two kinds of production. When the production level of material materials is low, the clan system with blood relationship as the link has become the basic social system for managing society before the state came into being. With the development of material production, the relationship of production formed by people in the process of material production gradually replaced the blood relationship and fundamentally changed the social structure. The new social system has replaced the clan system determined by blood relationship, that is, the state system with public power. Engels once emphasized that the state is the irreconcilable product of class contradictions, and pointed out that the disintegration of primitive social system is a gradual process, and the development of material production, the emergence of family private ownership and the formation of slave class are the prerequisites for the emergence of the state. In primitive society, when production developed to the first great division of labor (separation of agriculture and animal husbandry), slaves had already appeared, while in the second great division of labor (separation of agriculture and handicraft industry), slaves had become the main labor force of agriculture and handicraft industry. At this time, the country has not yet appeared. Only after the class was formed and the contradiction between the two opposing classes reached irreconcilable, did the state appear. The country is the irreconcilable product of class contradictions, and the economically dominant class "has obtained new means to oppress and exploit the oppressed class". This is the same as Marxism.