How does a state differ from a country? What is the difference between country and state?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

Do you know how a state differs from a country? After all, we are accustomed to the fact that both terms are identical. However, this is allowed only in common speech. When these words are pronounced by scientists or political scientists, for example, they put a different meaning into them. It would be nice to understand this so as not to get confused. If you look into it, it turns out that the difference between a country and a state is quite large. Although there are common features, which is why the relative identity of concepts has arisen.

What is a state?

Any question must be studied from definitions. Understanding how the state differs from the country, we immediately face a problem. The fact is that science has not reached full agreement in deciphering the last term. Most experts use a rather confusing and complex explanation. In their opinion, the state is a political entity that establishes rules in a certain territory and has sovereignty. In addition, it has a devicemanagement, including coercion and protection mechanisms. Agree, it is not yet clear how the state differs from the country. After all, we absolutely confidently attribute all the listed signs to the latter. Does the country have an army, police, government? So what's the difference?

Let's dig deeper. The word "state" originated in Russia. In ancient times, princes ruled the lands. They called the main "sovereign". He was the supreme judge for all the inhabitants of the territory. By the way, "sovereign" comes from "lord." That is, the prince, and later the king, was recognized as the vicar of God on earth. It turns out that, according to etymology, the term "state" has a spiritual essence. It's not exactly a mechanism, as scientists explain to us.

Signs of the State

Country pundits decided to call the territory with political boundaries. It, unlike the state, does not have sovereignty. That is, it is in a subordinate position in relation to another power. Cannot make independent (sovereign) decisions. An example country is the British Virgin Islands. This area has boundaries. But it is ruled by a queen. It turns out that there is no independence of the country from other states. She has a suzerain, a sovereign master. The state is characterized by the following features:

• the presence of power acting on behalf of the people (public);
• issuance of legislative acts regulating the life of society;
• economic independence;
• symbols and a single official language.

Sovereignty

Finding out how the state differs from the country, we will certainly face the issue of independence. After all, symbols, the economy, like bureaucracy and the police, are also in countries. But they do not belong to the people, they do not work to realize the aspirations and aspirations of citizens. It turns out that the main feature of the state is the country's independence from other states, the inadmissibility of violating the will of society. And it is expressed through a plebiscite. Simply put, people elect representatives who are obliged to work for the realization of their interests. Or this function is performed by the elite, which occupies a decisive role in the fact of birth. However, any spokesman of the will of the people does not allow outside interference in the affairs of the state. By the way, who makes decisions depends on the political system. There are two main ones. More about them.

Forms of government

History shows us that power in Russia before and after the revolution was arranged in various ways. In Great Britain it is concentrated in the hands of the queen, in the USA it is divided between the president and parliament. There are countries in which the head of state performs only representative functions, and important decisions are made by an elected body. It also happens vice versa. For example, in the Russian Federation, most of the power is concentrated in the hands of the president. And in Germany, a person holding a similar post only receives foreign guests and participates in other public events. Decisions are made by the Chancellor. Forms of governmentare:

• monarchy (autocracy);
• republic (democracy).

In the first case, one person leads the society, who receives this right by inheritance (mostly). In a republic, power belongs to the people, who delegate it to their representatives through a plebiscite.

Conclusion

In the modern world, the difference between concepts is becoming more and more difficult. Some experts say that there is no practical sense in how the concept of a country differs from a state. After all, huge corporations get power over many territories. They are taking away sovereignty on the sly, using mainly economic instruments. Judge for yourself what kind of independence we can talk about if the state owes more than it earns in a year. And there are many of them in the world. You can count on the fingers of the powers whose sovereign debt is much less than GDP. This is why world politics is so complicated.