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6. The State As we have seen, people living together and obeying accepted rules are a society. To make the rules (“Laws”), to enforce them and defend them, people created special systems. All of them together are - ‘the State’. The components of the State are: 1 Parliament - a group to discuss and decide laws and policies for an entire society. 2. Government - a commitee deciding how to carry out each policy. 3. Courts, Police, and prisons – people trained and organized to enforce the Laws; 4. An Army - people organized, and armed, to attack other societies or defend their society from others. All these together are “The State”. The content of the laws depends on their makers. If one person makes the Laws they will depend on that person’s priorities. If a group makes them they will depend on the group’s priorities. In the past people attributed the creation of laws to God. Peoples’ survival depended on society and society depended on laws accepted by all. The laws were deemed to come from God. Laws were engraved in stone to be permanent and visible. (In Hebrew ‘to make a law’ means ‘to engrave in stone’.) The Bible story about God giving the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai is an example of the belief that the laws by which a society lives are made by God.. According to the Bible Moses engraved them on two stone tablets, but he recieved them from God. Mohammed too was convinced that God dictated the Koran to him. Actually it is people who make all laws. Moses - not God - created the Ten Commandments, and Muhamad - not God - created the Koran. People make laws and States, and they can change them. Every State is designed, created, maintained and paid for by all the citizens and they have a right to change it whenever they so wish. The basic issue of politics is: Who makes the laws and policies of society ? Until four centuries ago the answer was - the King. Many citizens opposed laws and policies made by kings and decided to make the laws themselves. No King liked this. A violent conflict between kings and citizens started. The King called for ‘Law and Order’ denouncing the citizens as ‘outlaws’ and ‘lawless’. By ‘Law and Order’ he meant his Law and his Order. The citizens wanted the “Law and Order” they made themselves. The conflict between the citizens and the king was not conflict of ‘law vs. lawlessness’ or ‘order vs. disorder’. It was a conflict of “King’s law” vs. “Citizens’ law” and ‘King’s order’ vs. ‘citizens’ order’. Eventually the citizens won, but the issue, ‘Who makes the laws and who decides what the Order ashould be?’ is still with us today. Nowadays ‘law and order’ is decided by a few representatives, yet many citizens disagree with many laws and much of this ‘order’. Today we can have a system where all citizens - not their representatives - decide what the laws and the order should be. Such a system is a Direct Democracy (DD). It is a society run directly by all its citizens. This will be denounced as ‘Disorder’ and ‘Lawless’ by those who prefer Rule by Representatives (RR). Rule by Representatives is undemocratic when those represented can determine the law and the order themselves. This raises the question: What is Democracy? |
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