The Organic Nature Of The State

There are many speculations regarding the nature of the State and the
relation between the State and the individual. Six important theories
deserve special mention The first is the monistic theory. The advocates of
the monistic theory argue that individuals who compose the State have no
independent existence but are mere automatic units in the  whole mass,
each dependent on the other and upon the whole for its continued
existence.

They have no independent individuality of their own and all that they are,
they owe it to the society of which they are a part. This is really the
Idealist or the Absolutist theory of the State and we discuss it at a later
stage. Sharply opposed to the monistic theory is the monadnistic or purely
individualistic theory which conceives society as a mere aggregation of
individuals each in large measure living in isolation and independent of his
associates, capable of surviving and even flourishing without the aid of the
State beyond a mere minimum of collective restraint for the protection of
the weak against the aggression of the strong.

Every individual is, thus, a self-contained unit and there is no

interdependence of one on the other. He can survive and even flourish
Without the aid of the State. The necessity of the State is found in giving
protection to the weak against the aggression of the strong. The State is,
accordingly police State and it exists to protect and restrain,not to foster
and promote.

Then, there is the dualistic theory  a compromise between

the monistic theory and  the monadnistic theory. According to this theory
every individual leads a life of his own, but each is, in a way, dependent
upon others for his welfare. His existence is neither merged in that of the
whole, nor is he entirely isolated from and independent of his social
surroundings. Fourthly, we have the organic theory which considers the
State as a unity similar to that which characteristics a biological organism
The Juristic theory and the Marxist theory are the other two

THE ORGANIC NATURE OF THE STATE

Organic theory explained. The union of individuals forming the State has
been described as similar to the union between the several parts of an
animal body, wherein all parts  are functionally related and none can exist
in isolation from the rest. Just as the body has  a natural unity, so has a
social group. An arm lives and moves only as a part of an organic whole.
Amputated from the body, it dies. The Organic Theory is a biological
conception which describes the State in terms of natural science, Views
the individuals which compose it as analogous to the cells of a plant or
animal, and postulates a relation of interdependence between them and
society such as exists between the organs and parts of a biological
organism and the whole structure. In other words, as the animal body is
composed of cells, so is the State composed of several individuals, and as
is the relation of the hand to the body, or the leaf to the tree, so is the
relation of man to society. He  exists in it and it in him  The State is an
organic unity a living spiritual being.

History of the Theory.

The Organic Theory is as old as political thought itself. Plato compared the
State to a man of great stature, and conceived a resemblance in their
functions. He said that the best ordered commonwealth was one whose
structural organization resembled most nearly in principle to that of the
individual. Cieero, too relied, upon the same analogy and likened the head
of the State to the spirit which rules the human body. Among writers of the
Middle Ages and early modern times, the theory  was supported notably
by John of Salisbury, Marsiglio Althusius and many others. It also found
favor with Hobbes and Rousseau, although the analogies and comparisons
which they made were Superficial.

With the decline of the Social Contract Theory, in the early part of the
nineteenth century, the theory of the organic nature of the State found a
new and vigorous expression. The ancient and medieval writers had
merely drawn analogy between the State and an organism. They held that
the State resembled an organism. But writers of the nineteenth century
regarded the State as an organism. Even fanciful and very often vain
elaborations of the organic. conception attributing, for instance, to the
State an alimentary system a nervous system,-a circulatory system, etc.
became the theme of the time. Indeed, the fascination of the theory with its
biological analogies and parallelisms became so widespread that political
science, for a time, seemed in danger of being swallowed up by natural
science.

The new theory, that the State is an organism, took root in German soil
and there it found its most notable advocates. But the culmination of the
theory Was reached in the writings of Bluntschli. The State, he assented, is
the very image of human organism. As an oil painting  he said, is
something more than a mere aggregation of drops of oil, as a statue is
something more than a combination of marble particles, as a man is
something more than a mere quantity of cells and blood corpuscles, so the
nation is something more than a mere aggregation of citizens, and the State
something more than a mere collection of external regulations. He
stretched his biological analogy to the extreme and endowed the State with
the quality of sex, describing it as having a male personality.

Theory as expanded by Spencer.

The theory that the State is an organism received a most scientific
treatment at the hands of Herbert Spencer, the English philosophy. 
Spencer believed that social life is a part of an ever-evolving nature and
starting from the idea of a universal evolution, he afterwards included
biological evolution in his analysis. He asserted that society is an organism
and it differs in no essential principle from Other biological organisms.

The attributes of an organism and society, he maintained, are similar and

the , permanent relations existing between their various parts are also the
same. Both exhibit the same process of development. The animal and
social bodies, Spencer affirmed, begin as germs, all similar and simple in
structure. As they grow and develop, they become unlike and complex in
structure. Their process of development is the same both moving from
similarity and simplicity to dissimilarity and complexity. As the lowest
type of animal is  all stomach, respiratory surface or limb, so primitive
society is all Amory, all hunter, all builder, or all tool maker. As society
grows in complexity, division of labor follows, i.e, new organs with
different functions appear, corresponding to the differentiation of functions
in the animal, in which fundamental trait they become entirely alike.

In either case there is a mutual dependence of parts. Just as the hand

depends on the  arm and the arm on the body and head, so do the parts of
the social organism depend on each other. Every organism depends for its
life and full performance of its functions on the proper coordination and
interrelation of the units. As the diseased condition of one organ affects the
health and proper functioning of other organs, similarly, individuals who
form  the society are inseparably connected With one another for the
retaliation of their best self.  There is so much dependence of one on the
other that the distress of one paralyses the rest of the society. If the iron
worker in the social organism stops work, or the miner or the food
producer, or the distributor fails to discharge his natural functions in the
economy of the society, the whole suffers-injury just as the animal
organism suffers horn the failure of its members to perform their
functions. Society and organism, it is further pointed out, are both subject
to wear and tear and then replacement. Just as cell tissues and blood
corpuscles in, the animal organism wear out and are replaced by new ones,
in the same manner, old infirm, and diseased persons die, giving place to
newly born persons.

Spencer, then, gives some structural analogies between society and

organism. He says, society, too, has three systems corresponding to the
sustaining system, the distributed  system and the regulating system in an
organism The sustaining system in an organism consists of mouth, gullet,
stomach and intestines it is by means of this system that food is digested
and the whole organic machine is sustained Society has its own sustaining
system and it is the productive system comprising the manufacturing
districts and agricultural areas. The distribution system in an organism
consists of the blood vessels, heart, arteries and veins and they carry blood
to all parts of the body. Means of communication and transport in the
social structure correspond to the distributor system in an organism What
the arteries and veins mean to the human body roads, railways, post and
telegraph services mean to society. Family, the regulating system is the
never-motor mechanism which regulates the whole body. Government in
the body politic, regulates and controls the activities of the individuals, and
it is analogous to the regulating system.

From these points of agreement, Spencer concludes that the State is an

organism. But he himself admits that the identity between the two is not
complete. There is one extreme unlikeness in the structure of the body
politic and that of the animal organism. The animal organism is concrete in
structure, that is, its units are bound together in close contact and they
form a concrete whole The social body, on the other hand, is discrete. Its
parts are separate and distinct, or, to quote Spencer, the units of the social
body are free and more or less widely dispersed.

Spencer also points out another difference between an organism and a

social body. This difference he admits, is very important because it greatly
affects our notion of the ends to be achieved by social organization. He
says that there is no nerve sensorium in the social body. That is to say,
there is no single center of consciousness in society  as is found in the
living body. In an organism, consciousness is concentrated in one definite
part of the whole, the cerebrum or brain in society, it is disused or spread
over the whole. Every individual member m a society has his own
conscience and he acts for himself independently of others.

But even these “fundamental” points Of difference in the structure of the

body politic and that of the animal organism did not deter Spencer from
his thesis that the State is an organism. As a matter of fact, he built on
those differences his theory of Individualism. He concluded that the State
should leave the individual alone to pursue his own welfare for society
exists for the benefit of its members, not its members for the benefit of 
society. Herbert  Spencer did not, however, realize that his conclusion was
the very negation of the organic nature of the State.

Other Advocates of the Theory.

The organic theory lost its prestige after Albert  Schaffle, the Austrian
publicist, who emphasized at great length the anatomical, physiological,
biological and psychological resemblances between society and the
animal  body. He asserted that society is an organism whose protoplasm or
unit is man, the State , or government in the one corresponding to the brain
in the other. Among others who have emphatically defended the organic
theory are the French writers, notably, August Comte, Fouille and Rene
Worms. Comte described human society as the highest stage in organic
evolution, embodying the completest development of that natural harmony
or organization and action Rene Worms says that the anatomy, physiology,
and pathology of society possess striking similarities to the structure,
function and pathology of living beings.  But the attempts to draw literal
analogies between society and living organisms have now been abandoned
. Today, the organic conception of the State has survived (with
insignificant exceptions) only in the older Hegelian form the State an end
in itself its evolution controlled by its own laws its functionally different
parts, interdependent and inseparable, all existing for and dependent upon
a Vigorous life of the corporate national life.

Evaluation of the Theory.

There are two points of view about the organic nature of  the State. Barker
says, The State is not an organism but it is like an organism. The organic
analogy has a useful purpose to serve as it emphasizes the unity of the
State. The State is not a mere aggregation of people It is a social unity
Man Cannot lead a life of isolation. Dependence is his very psychology
and individuals depend on one another and on the State as a whole. The
welfare of each is involved in the welfare of all. He cannot be separated
from society, just as a hand or a leg, without losing its utility cannot be
separated from the body. The State has a collective life like an organism.

The attainment of the common purpose depends upon the proper

performance by every individual of his functions or duties.  Every citizen
has social obligations to himself, to his family, to his neighbors, and to the
society of which he is a unit. Hobhouse rightly sums-up,the life of society
and the life of an individual do resemble one another in certain respects
and the term organic is as justly applicable to the one as to the other for an
organism is a whole, consisting of interdependent parts. Each part lives
and functions and grows by sub serving the life of the whole. It sustains
the rest and is sustained by them and through their mutual support comes a
common development.

So far we agree and accept the proposition that the State is like an
organism. But the farther these analogies are carried, the more misleading
they become. The user of analogy tends to forget that the resemblances he
notices hold good only within the limits where they overlap. The objects
compared are plainly not identical, as to compare identical is useless, but
possess, besides their common features, other traits that distinguish them.

At many points the comparison between society and an organism is

exceedingly superficial. There is no similarity between the cells of an
organism and the individuals  who compose society. The cells have no
independent life of their own. They are mechanical pieces of matter. Each
is fixed in its place, having no power of thought or will, and existing solely
to support and perpetuate the life of the whole. The individuals, on the
other hand, are independent, intellectual and moral human beings. They do
not act like a machine. Each individual has a physical life independent of
the whole and each strives to make his own destiny. It is true that man
cannot be the best of himself independently of society, but he can live, if
he so wishes, an independent life of his own.  This is not possible m an
organism. If parts are cut off from their parent body, they die. Chop off a
branch from a tree, a limb from a human body, and both perish .

It is, again, true that the State has grown from similarity and simplicity to
dissimilarity and complexity. But even common reason does not believe
that it is subject to the same process of birth, growth and decay as an
organism. An animal organism comes into existence by the union of two
organisms. This is not the method of the birth of the State. The process of
its growth is also not similar. Organisms grow from within and through
internal adaptation. They grew unconsciously independent of volition,
entirely dependent on its environment and the natural laws of the
biological world. The machinery of the  State and its laws, on the other
hand, Change to adjust themselves to the altered cheek and requirements
of the people And all this change is brought about as a result volition and
conscious efforts of its members. Its growth, if such it may be called, 
largely the result of the conscious action of its individual members and is
to a great extent self-directed. Then, an organism dies. The State is not
liable to death. It is permanent it endures. To sum up, in the words of J
ellinek “Growth, decline and death are no necessary processes of State life
though they are inseparable from the life of the organism The State does
not originate or renew itself as a plant or as an animal does.”

The Organic Theory does not help us in answering the baffling, but
practical question of what the State should do. In fact, the Organic Theory
has been used to support views on the province of the State ranging from
Individualism to Socialism. Herbert Spencer uses it as a basis, for the
theory of laissez faire and limits the functions of the State only to the
prevention of violence and fraud.The State should, accordingly, limit its
activities to those particular functions for which it arose. From the
“discrete” nature of the social body, he Concluded that every individual
exists for his own good only and not for the happiness of the whole. In
close contrast to Spencer’s theory of Individualism are .the supporters of
extreme socialism and absolutism of the State. Relying upon the organic
nature of the State, the German writers maintained that the State, as the
highest organism is the important unit, and. collective activity is the ideal
of social progress.

Herbert Spencer’s conclusion that the individual should otherwise be lief

alone is a forced one The Organic Theory, with all its analogies, in the
form in which it is usually stated, is pregnant with dangerous results. Some
of these biological comparisons are ingenious and well stated to many
writers they have proved fascinating and seductive to others they have
constituted the basis of an argument for a theory of the State which would
sacrifice individual to society .  The central idea of the theory is to merge
the individual in the social group and consequently regard him as a vulgar
fraction. To repeat the words of Leacock, “As is the relation of the hand to
the body, or the leaf to the tree, so is the relation of man to society. He
exists in it, and it in him.” What this relationship actually means, the world
witnessed in Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy. Communist
countries, like Soviet Russia and China, also amplify it. Jellinek has
rightly said, “We had better reject the theory in Toto lest the danger from
the larger amount of falsity in the analogy should outweigh the good in the
little truth it contains”.

Juristic Theory.
The Juristic Theory of the State embodies the point of view of the jurists
who seek to explain the nature of the State in terms of legal concepts. They
endow the State with a fictitious legal personality,as they look upon the
State as a legal “person” possessing, like a natural physical person, an
individuality, self-consciousness and a will of its own. They view the State
as an organ for the creation, interpretation and enforcement of law, and for
the protection of all legal rights.

Not all jurists agree amongst themselves There are some who regard the
State as the sole and exclusive creator of law while others reject this
opinion and maintain that a large body of law in the past was never
enacted or created by the State It essentially, the latter claim, consisted of
customs and usages which no legal sovereign could afford to ignore. A
jurist like Duguit Would go to the length of asserting that law may exist
anterior to the creation of the State, and therefore is independent of its will,
and that the State is bound by this law and has no right to override or
disregard its prescriptions.

But German jurists, like F. J. Stahl, Lorenz Von Stein, Otto Gierke, and
H.G Trietschke, vest the State with a real, as opposed to a fictitious,
personality having a legal will of its own distinct from the sum of the wills
of the individuals composing the State, and a capacity for expressing its
will in words and acts, and as the creator and possessor of rights.

Thus jurists themselves look differently on the nature of the State. As long
as the,conception of the State being a person means nothing more than that
it is a sovereign corporation, that is, an artificial person, as the law regards
all corporations, and as such possesses a collective will, a legal Capacity,
and power of collective action, apart from the Will, the capacity and the
power of action of the numerous individuals who compose, it, just as a
private corporation has a continued existence and possesses rights and
obligations which are distinct from those of the shareholders, the juristic
analysis is good and useful and may be accepted.

But the conception of the real personality of the State, as asserted by some
eminent German jurists, is pregnant with pernicious results. Que may
accept the proposition that the State, like other corporations, has a legal
personality and it can sue and be sued. It may own property, and States do,
direct and undertake economic enterprises and perform other functions as
the custodian of the  interests of the present and future generations.
Citizens of the State suffer from telescopic defects they discount the future
and put premium on the present.

Moreover, individual interests change and shift. The State is a permanent

legal entity and it suffers from no telescopic defects. It endures and
represents the collective will and collective interests of rally, the citizens
gather than individual interests represented by individual Will to say that
the State has a real personality apart from that of the citizens is to vest that
entity with absolute powers which may prove antagonistic to the interests
Of a citizen and may dwarf his individuality, if not altogether suppress it.
The Juristic Theory of the State is, therefore, to be accepted only to the
extent of attributing to the State a fictitious legal personality for certain
specified purposes. For example, International Law characteristic the State
as a “person”, and it is nothing more than the juridical personification of
the  nation.

Marxian Theory of the State.

The Marxian or Communist theory of the State finds its full expression in
the philosophy of Karl Marx. The basis of his doctrine is a philosophy of
history, supplemented by a theory of the State and a body of economic
theory. Briefly stated, the State, according to this theory, is a “super-
structure.” Its form is determined by the exigencies of class struggle and
the demands of the underlying material situation. Defined as an instrument
of exploitation and coercion, the State is regarded as the product and
manifestation of the irreconcilable class antagonism. At every stage of its
development, a single class is dominant and this dominant class controls 
the State and uses its machinery to further its exploitation of the exploited
class, which is the non-possessing class. Under capitalism, the State is in
essence a committee of the bourgeoisie for the oppression and exploitation
of the working class, the proletariat.

The Marxian theory rejects the very basis of the State, namely, that it is a
natural and necessary institution. The State is an artificial vehicle of
coercion and is a product of society at a certain stage of its economic
development. The State, Federick Engels wrote, has not existed from all
eternity. There have been societies that did without it, that had no
conception of the state and state power. At a certain stage of economic
development, which was necessarily bound up with the cleavage of society
into classes, the state became a necessity owing to cleavage? The State
has, therefore, no moral stature and useful purpose to serve. It is an organ
of class rule, fan organ for the Oppression of one class by another it
creates order which legalities and perpetuates this oppression by
moderating the collision between the classes.

The ancient and the feudal States were organs for the exploitation of the
slaves and the serfs and the contemporary representative state is an
instrument of exploitation of wage-labor by capital. The revolution of the
past was that of the slaves and serfs against feudalism and it found its
expression in the French Revolution. The one in the future, Marx
predicted, will be the revolution of the wage-earners against the
bourgeoisie in their bid to establish the Socialist Commonwealth.

When the revolution comes, the capitalist class will disappear and a
classless society headed by the Dictatorship of the Proletariat takes its
place. “In order to break down the resistance of the bourgeois,” says Marx,
“the workers invest the State with a revolutionary spirit.” A few remaining
elements of capitalism must be swept away and the minds of men purged
of the remnants of capitalist mentality with which they were infected. The 
Dictatorship of the Proletariat will continue with the State, but it will be a
revolutionary State invested with oppressive and autocratic powers The
proletarian dictatorship takes up the work of both construction and
destruction construction of Socialism and complete destruction of
Capitalism. Once the bourgeoisie has been completely suppressed and the
remnants of the Capitalist system are removed, the necessity of the State
will cease to exist. The State will “wither away” and the emerging society
will be classless and Stateless.
The Marxian Theory of the State ignores human nature altogether and the
development of historical events and processes. The entire historical
economic thesis of Marx is untenable. The influence of non-economic
interests, such as religious and historical, cannot be brushed aside with
contempt. Both these influences, inter alia, have played a significant role
in the historical growth of society and the State. Then, the State is not the
result of exploitation pure and simple, as the Marxist theory claims.
Exploitation may have played a Vital role in the formation of the State, but
it cannot be the only cause of the origin of the State. Maclver has tightly
said, Significant as that motive was, it did not work alone. The authority of
the elders over the younger kin was not exploitation, but it played a part in
the making of the State. The tribal sense of justice evoked agencies of
jurisdiction, and they too were conditions of the emerging State. And
many factors contributed to create the kind of political loyalty without
which the State would have never grown to maturity.

Marx’s entire emphasis on the origin and development of the State is on

force. He considers the State as a vehicle of oppression and maintains that
the capitalist class has arisen to power, has consolidated its position and
authority and retains its pre-eminence through the use of force. He
concludes that power can be Wrested from this class only through the use
of force, no matter how ruthless it may have to be. The Communists Will,
therefore, capture the capitalist State by force and consolidate the
Dictatorship of the Proletariat by force. Force is the essence of the
Proletarian State. Two questions mark the discussion here. Will the use of
force come to an end when the State withers away.

Secondly, Will the State at all “wither away”? There was no trace of  it
under the former Soviet Russia. Nor is there any in China and other
Communist countries that exist. Both these vital instruments of
Communist ideology constitute the whole of development of a Communist
Society.