Classification of States: the main options. Classification of States

The classification of states is a task that many scientists have tried to solve since ancient times. And to this day this issue is urgent. There are a number of approaches on the basis of which the classification of forms of the state is conducted. In this article we will describe the main ones.

State and its functions

First you need to determine what is the state. This is a sovereign political and territorial organization of public authority, which has a special apparatus, and also has the will, which all its citizens are obliged to perform. The state is the main institution of the political system. We have discovered the meaning of this concept because each classification is based on the definition of the essential features of the object.

Types of functions of the state are divided into internal and external. Internal political (for example, order), economic (privatization, nationalization), ideological (formation of patriotic and civic values through the media and education, education of members of society) and social (health, culture, social support) programs are internal. External functions are providing the state with national security, developing mutually beneficial cooperation between the countries, defending national and state interests in the international sphere, and participating in solving various global problems.

The state appears in a society that is filled with coercion and violence, but seeks to limit them, create the necessary conditions for cooperation and cooperation of people. That is why it is a contradictory and complex entity that acts as an arbiter and mediator between different classes and groups of society. Its origin is explained by the need to satisfy the interests not only of a certain social class, but also of society as a whole.

How to classify states

There are a large number of different state entities. Therefore, their study involves the integration of these entities into separate groups. This is necessary to determine the reproducible, repetitive features on which the classification of states is based. Briefly talk about the diversity of the object of our research is not easy. Each state is unique. However, this does not mean that certain essential features can not be repeated. Some of them are typical for a number of objects. The concept of "classification of the state" presupposes the ordering of them on various grounds (one or several), the division of the entire population into groups and classes according to one or another significant feature.

Even Plato, the ancient Greek thinker, proposed the first model of classification of states, significant from the point of view of science. This model was later perfected by his disciple, Aristotle. At present, one of the most famous is the formational approach, which is based on the historical and dialectical materialism of Marx and Engels. We can assume that this is the main classification of states.

Formational approach

It involves referring to such a concept as a socio-economic formation. In Marxist-Leninist theory, this term means a historical step in social development. It has a special mode of production, called a basis. In addition, it is characterized by certain political and social relations, ideology, legal institutions and norms (superstructure).

From the point of view of the supporters of this approach, there are 5 socio-economic formations. The earliest of these is primitive communal. Next follows the slaveholding, then the feudal, the bourgeois, and finally the communist one. A certain type of state corresponds to class formations . The classification criteria for these types are as follows:

• The mode of production, the level of development of production relations and productive forces;
• The main form of ownership (public or private);
• The division of society into classes (the rich, the haves, the poor and the have-nots).

In accordance with these criteria, the following types are distinguished: the slave state, the feudal state, the bourgeois state, and the socialist state. Let's consider each of them.

Slave type

In the conditions of such a state, the main object of property is a person. Primitive tools of labor can not yet provide people with greater productivity. Consequently, the number of products that society receives depends on the qualities of employees. To the slave type belonged the states of the Ancient East, that is, those that formed at the end of the 4th - the beginning. 3 millennium BC. E. (Ancient China, Ancient India, Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Sumer, etc.). They were characterized by:

• Agricultural communities (communal land tenure, rural communities);
• Irrigation agriculture;
• Collective slavery;
• Primitive forms of patriarchal slavery;
• State ownership of irrigation facilities.

In Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, which were also slave-owning states, there were observed:

• The division of society into classes of slaveholders and slaves;
• Private property of the former on the means of production (means and objects of labor), as well as slaves, who were goods, objects, things and at the same time people who create various material goods;
• Protection and protection of private property.

Feudal type

There are other types of states. The classification proposed by Marx and Engels, as you remember, includes four types. The economic basis of the state of the second, feudal type is the private property of feudal lords on the means of production, primarily land. For such a system, it is characteristic that the peasants are forcibly seized on land plots. This was observed for various reasons. For example, the peasants agreed to this, not to pay tribute and not participate in military campaigns. They could become serfs and of their own free will, but because they faced the need to somehow feed their families. Another option - the residence of the peasants on the land belonging to the landowner.

However, serfs were still not completely disenfranchised. For the state of the feudal type, the private property of the peasants for inventory (small agricultural implements) is characteristic, as well as for the remains of the products produced by them, for buildings and their housing. But they had to work for the feudal lord free of charge. In the feudal state, there were 3 main types of rent:

• Corvée - labor rent, in which the serf was obliged to work for his master a certain number of days a week;
• A natural rent when he was forced to give the owner a certain amount of agricultural produce produced by him (and the artisan gave the products of his labor);
• Money lump (money rent), that is, the payment of a certain amount of money to the feudal serf.

The legal and economic dependence of peasants on feudal lords, as well as vassals (less wealthy feudal lords) on the more affluent (suzeraines) was observed. The private property of the vassals and suzerains was protected. Examples of such states were medieval France, Germany, Italy, Russia, etc.

The bourgeois state (capitalist)

It is characterized by the existence of diverse forms of ownership, but it is the private (on the means of production) that is predominant. The main sources of the emergence and accumulation of property is the exploitation of the labor of employees and workers. The results of someone else's work are assigned. The economy is market-oriented. This means that prices are formed on the basis of supply and demand. There is competition on the market. The society is divided into classes of capitalists (the bourgeoisie) and wage workers; To the lower, middle and upper classes.

The first capitalist states appeared about 200-300 years ago in North America and Europe. The bourgeois system began to quickly conquer the world after the Great French Revolution took place. In the 1930s, capitalist states entered a modern stage of development. Apparently, it is transitional to a higher formation.

Socialist type

The economic basis of states of this type is state ownership of the means of production. There is a planned regulation of the economy, an equal distribution of the produced goods, and exploitation of the working people by the state. The society is divided into classes of intelligentsia, peasants and workers.

The socialist state in the formation theory is no longer a state in the full sense of the word, since the working classes in it are not exploited by the minority. In fact, we can say that this is a "semi-state". It expresses the interests and will of the absolute majority of the society: all working people.

In a communist society, which is supposed to come in the future, it will wither away, as it will give way to communist self-government. However, according to AB Vengerov, the socialist type of the state as a whole turned out to be in many of its features a kind of eastern despotism that arose as a result of the application of the Asian mode of production.

One type is replaced by another way of accomplishing a social revolution. It is the result of the existence in society of an insoluble contradiction between production relations and production forces.

The civilizational approach

There is also one more popular approach, according to which the classification of forms of the state is carried out, - civilizational. It is based not only on the development of class relations and production, but also on spiritual-cultural and other factors (in particular, technological, geographic, chronological, religious, legal, etc.).

The concept of "civilization" is central when using this approach. This term was derived from the Latin word for "civil". AD Toynbee, an English historian and philosopher of the 20th century, believed that civilizations are defined groups of communities that evoke associations in the field of architecture, religion, painting, customs and mores, that is, in the field of culture in general.

Among researchers at present there is no general opinion about how many civilizations existed in history. Thus, O. Spengler, a German culturologist and philosopher, spoke of eight major cultures. Karl Jaspers, the philosopher-theologian, singled out nine civilizations. Their number from the point of view of Toynbee reaches 21 (Chinese, Egyptian, Western, Far Eastern, Orthodox, Iranian, Arab, Mexican, Syrian, etc.).

Classification of Danilevsky

For the first time the basis of the civilizational approach was formulated by N. Ya. Danilevsky. In his work "Russia and Europe", published in 1869, he substantiated the theory of "cultural-historical types." Otherwise, they can be defined as civilizations. These types are distinguished by the uniqueness and independence of social, religious, industrial, domestic, artistic, scientific and other development. The scientist believed that civilizations develop in the same way as biological organisms. They go through the stages of maturation and decrepitude, after which they perish. The replacement of one cultural-historical type by another is inevitable. N. Ya. Danilevsky believed that it was the Slavic type that was historically promising. He opposes the non-viable cultures of the West.

Legal classification

The legal classification of states does not take into account their inclusion in this or that social system. It is distracted from their social content, political ideologies and struggles, the correlation of opposition and ruling parties that are inherent in any state. The study of all these moments occurs in political science and historical science.

The legal approach has an institutional and formal character. Such classification of states implies their attribution to one or another state form. The latter is defined as a way of emergence, organization and implementation of state power. It includes the following three aspects:

• Form of state structure (unitary state, union, confederation, federation);
• Form of government (absolute, limited or parliamentary monarchy, republic);
• Form of a political regime that can be liberal-democratic or undemocratic.

It is necessary to take into account all these criteria for classifying the state. For example, Russia is a federation, a republic that has a liberal-democratic form of political regime.

Other grounds for classification

Other methods of classifying states can be proposed. For example, according to the level of development of technology, they can be informational, post-industrial, industrial and agricultural. From the point of view of the history of development, the state can be defined as modern, medieval or ancient. There is also an economic classification of states, on the basis of which the developed and developing countries, the countries of the third world are allocated. Given the geographical factor, we can talk about the European, African, Asian and American types. There is also a classification of the rule of law. It can refer to the traditional-religious, Romano-Germanic or Anglo-American legal system. If we take as a basis religion, then the states can be Catholic, Orthodox, Hindu, Muslim.

Thus, the classification of states can be carried out for a variety of reasons. We described in detail only the most common. If you pass the exam, we recommend that you study the topic "classification of states" well. Cheat sheet will help you only if you understand the main points for yourself.