Differentiating government and state By Abraham Vincent KamatiThe definition of a state can also be different from the more common one involving a territory, population and common identity. A state can also be a form of human associations having fundamental differences with other social groups by purpose, the establishment of order and security, its methods, its enforcement and the law. It also involves the broad agreements of laws.
A government on the other hand is a system involving elected individuals who run a government. It therefore becomes a system of polity in a state which has the jurisdiction to form fundamental rules and principles by which individuals within that state are governed. However, it is important to note that not everybody can differentiate the terms “state” and “government”. Some people use them synonymously. It is often said that even King Louis XIV fell victim to this error when he said “I am the state”. Questionably, what he meant was the government and the state whose authority he had possessed.
The state has four elements namely population, territory, government and sovereignty. Government is a slender concept and it is a component of the state. It is justly said the state is an organic concept in which the government is a part. Some analysts like Willoughby indicate that, “By the term government is designated the organisation of the state machinery through which is designated the organisation of the state machinery through which its purposes are formulated and executed.” Government is a proxy of the state. That is why in a democracy, it is considered as servant and the state as master. Government is compared with the brain of the living organism; what the brain is to the man. The government is to the state.
The state is more or less permanent and continues from time immemorial. But the government is temporal. It vicissitudes frequently. A government may come and go, but the state continues endlessly. The state is generally composed of all citizens but all of them are not members of the government. The government consists of only a few selected citizens. The organ of the government consists of only a few selected citizens. The organs of the government are executive, legislature and judiciary. The few selected persons will run these three organs of the government. Thus, the state is an extensive organisation, more so than the government. Membership of the state is compulsory but not that of the government.
The state possesses sovereignty. Its authority is absolute and limitless. Its power cannot be taken away by any other institution. Government possesses no sovereignty, no original authority, but only derivative powers delegated by the state through its constitution. Powers of government are delegated and limited. The state is an intellectual concept whereas government is a tangible one. Nobody sees the state and the state never acts. The government is a physical manifestation and it performances for the state.
All states are duplicate in characters and nature. Whether big or small, the characteristics of the state do not undertake changes. But governments are of dissimilar types and they may vary from state to state. Various political scientists have given different classifications of government. Aristotle classified government into monarchy, aristocracy and democracy while Marriot classified government into parliamentary or presidential and unitary or federal. Thus, there is no undeviating pattern of government. But the state is a universal institution having one single form with its four essential characteristics mentioned above.
However if a government in place does not perform its functions accordingly, a state can be bound to fail. State failure definitions have proliferated in different literatures by many scholars. A state can fail from many dimensions such as income distribution, political representation, security and economic developments. States can fail when they fail to deliver positive political goods to their people. Their governments can also love the legitimacy to rule and therefore, in the eyes and hearts of its citizens, a state can then become illegitimate. State failure can occur on all angles simultaneously as in Somalia which is the most common example of state failure on the African continent. Another example is that of Colombia where the state has been relatively impressive in macroeconomic management but has dismally failed to control large parts of its rural areas where guerrilla and paramilitary groups and drug cartels have been dominantly powerful. Therefore, given the variation in state capacity across sectors, aggregate measures or categorisations of ‘failure’ can be misleading at times.
Lastly, if a state is not labelled as “failed”, the citizens will possess rights to go in contradiction of, government and not against the state. The state only acts through the government and the government may oblige mistakes and not the state. Thus, the citizens have only rights to go against the government. Moreover, the state consists of the citizens, the citizens to go against the state it will mean to go against themselves. This is an impossible proposition in some way. After all this, a state is an indestructible union of citizens having the chief characteristic of permanence and continuity. Government is only a part of the state. If we are fully aware of these fundamental distinctions between a state and a government, then we can be able to question and ask questions on the how our state should be operated and controlled.
* Abraham Vincent Kamati is a University of Namibia student at the HP Campus where he serves the Student Representative Council (SRC) as speaker of parliament.