User:Nick Gardner /Sandbox: Difference between revisions
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The concept of the [[state]] as a country's supreme legal entity has become an indispensible component of political analysis. Although originally created by governments, the state has acquired a notional existence that is independent of the [[government]], [[country]] and [[nation]] with which it is associated. It has the characteristics of a [[corporation]] in its ability to enter into every form of legal and commercial transaction in the same way as an individual. There have been a number of different interpretations of the term and attitudes to the concept. It was seen by [[Thomas Hobbes]] <ref>[http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html Hobbes ''Leviathan''] </ref> in the 17th century as the means of preventing the chaos of a “war of all against all”, | The concept of the [[state]] as a country's supreme legal entity has become an indispensible component of political analysis. Although originally created by governments, the state has acquired a notional existence that is independent of the [[government]], [[country]] and [[nation]] with which it is associated. It has the characteristics of a [[corporation]] in its ability to enter into every form of legal and commercial transaction in the same way as an individual. There have been a number of different interpretations of the term and attitudes to the concept. It was seen by [[Thomas Hobbes]] <ref>[http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html Hobbes ''Leviathan''] </ref> in the 17th century as the means of preventing the chaos of a “war of all against all”, | ||
According to the Israeli historian, Martin Van Creveld; | |||
Beginning with the French Revolution, which marked its transformation from a means into an end, to have a state of one's own became something of which people used to take extraordinary pride and for which they were often prepared to make every sacrifice including, where necessary, rivers of blo | Beginning with the French Revolution, which marked its transformation from a means into an end, to have a state of one's own became something of which people used to take extraordinary pride and for which they were often prepared to make every sacrifice including, where necessary, rivers of blo | ||
<ref>[http://www.questia.com/read/105717112?title=The%20Rise%20and%20Decline%20of%20the%20State# Martin Van Creveld: ''The Rise and Decline of the State'' Cambridge University Press, 2004]</ref> | <ref>[http://www.questia.com/read/105717112?title=The%20Rise%20and%20Decline%20of%20the%20State# Martin Van Creveld: ''The Rise and Decline of the State'' Cambridge University Press, 2004]</ref> | ||
Revision as of 02:39, 24 December 2009
The concept of the state as a country's supreme legal entity has become an indispensible component of political analysis. Although originally created by governments, the state has acquired a notional existence that is independent of the government, country and nation with which it is associated. It has the characteristics of a corporation in its ability to enter into every form of legal and commercial transaction in the same way as an individual. There have been a number of different interpretations of the term and attitudes to the concept. It was seen by Thomas Hobbes [1] in the 17th century as the means of preventing the chaos of a “war of all against all”, According to the Israeli historian, Martin Van Creveld; Beginning with the French Revolution, which marked its transformation from a means into an end, to have a state of one's own became something of which people used to take extraordinary pride and for which they were often prepared to make every sacrifice including, where necessary, rivers of blo