5.1. The concept and definition of the state

For a long time, thinkers have tried to answer the question of what a state is. Another Roman orator, philosopher and political figure MT. Cicero asked and at the same time answered: "Yes, and what is a state, if not a general rule of law." Cicero had quite a few followers at different times and in different countries: the founder of the normative theory of law was G. Kelzen , the Russian economist and philosopher P. Struve, and others. The lawyer N.М. Korkunov . He argued that the state is a public union of free people with a forcibly established peace order by providing the exclusive right of coercion only to state bodies. In a word, many scholars characterized the state as an organization of law and order (order), saw in it its essence and main purpose. But this is only one of the signs of this phenomenon.

The definition of the state as an aggregate (union) of people, the territory occupied by these people, and power has become widespread. The well-known statesman L. Duguit identified four elements of the state :

• a collection of human individuals ;
• certain territory ;
• sovereign power ;
• government

“The name of the state,” wrote GF Shershenevich , “means the union of people who have settled within certain borders and are subject to the same power.”

The considered definition correctly reflects some of the features (features) of the state, but it was the reason for various simplifications. Referring to it, some authors identified the state with the country, others with society, and still others with the circle of persons exercising power. IN AND. Lenin criticized this definition for the fact that many of his supporters in the series of distinctive features of the state called compulsory power: "There is coercive power in every human community, in the tribal system, and in the family, but there was no state here."

Do not agree with the above concept and supporters of the psychological theory of law. F.F. Kokoshkin asserted: "The state is not a set of people of a certain kind, but relations between them, a form of communication, a well-known psychological connection between them. However, the" form of community ", the form of organization of society is also only one of the signs, but not the whole state.

More than once K. Marks and F. Engels addressed the definition of the state. They believed that this is “the form in which individuals belonging to the ruling class exercise their common interests and in which the entire civil society of a given epoch finds its concentration”. Many years later, F. Engels formulated a brief, but the most confrontational definition, according to which "the state is nothing but a machine for suppressing one class to another." IN AND. Lenin made some changes to the above definition. He wrote: "The state is a machine for maintaining the rule of one class over another."

By bringing the violent side to the fore, these definitions make it difficult to see in the state the valuable phenomena of civilization, culture and social order.

In modern literature, the state is usually defined as a political-territorial sovereign organization of public authority, which has a special apparatus capable of making its decrees binding on the entire country. This definition synthesizes the most significant features and characteristics of the state and is generally acceptable, but it poorly reflects the connection between the state and society. Therefore, the following wording will be more accurate: the state is the political organization of society, managing the affairs of society through the state mechanism, sovereign power, giving the law a universally binding meaning, guaranteeing the rights, freedoms of citizens, law and order .