The relationship between the state and society

Perhaps one of the most important approaches that explain political developments and interactions in all their forms, the form of authority, the phenomenon of military coups, states of stability and political instability, and the spread of the phenomenon of political violence is the approach to the relationship between the state and society. This relationship is what explains to us the multiplicity and diversity of forms of government systems.

The greater the number of countries, the greater the number of these forms based on the hypothesis that the environment of political power differs in its variables and components from one country to another. The pillar of governance is the state, which is based on three elements: the territory, which is the boundaries of rule and authority, the people over whom authority is exercised, and sovereignty, which constitutes the supreme will, which is the basis of authority and from which it derives its existence.

Accordingly, governance is an interaction between society and the state, and the strength and cohesion of society depends on the extent to which it limits the incursion of power.

Society represents the anarchist side of power and governance, and the state represents the authoritarian side. In its broadest sense, power means the ability to influence others and oblige them to follow the decisions, laws, and policies decided by the authority. The state resorts to this because it possesses all the elements of hard power, including military, security, and economic power.

And its control over soft power, which is one of the most prominent features of society’s power. The relationship between them takes more than one form. The first form is the encroachment of society, as in Marxist-communist systems of government, and the state’s encroachment on society, as in many systems of government in third world countries, including the Arab model.

The third form is balance in the relationship, which is represented by democratic and rational systems of government. Here, many questions arise about the legitimacy of authority, its establishment, the imposition of obedience to it, and its impact on the form and effectiveness of society. In this context, the behavioral school emerges, that behavior is the basis of change and determines the relationship, and the structural and institutional school, that it determines the relationship and controls its paths. Change means the freedom of actors to exercise their rights, while supporters of the second school see commitment and submission to existing laws and orders.

There are those who believe that society precedes the state and is the one who imposes the form of government: a society with multiple ethnic, sectarian and minority backgrounds imposes a federal form of government, and on the contrary, a homogeneous society imposes the centralization of power on the basis that politics tells us who gets what, when, and how? The authority maintains its control through its control over the means of coercion and coercion.

Since the relationship between them is an organic and complementary relationship, and the basis of the relationship is limitation and restraint of authority. The form of balance remains the one that achieves stability and development, and its basis is single citizenship and the equal rights approach. The relationship depends on a set of determinants at the level of society and the state. On the basis of society, the factors of societal harmony, rights, level of education, poverty, unemployment, the strength of civil culture, civil society institutions, the strength of available soft power, and political pluralism emerge, and they are all factors and determinants that increase the effectiveness of society.

At the state level, the strength of political institutions, the system of laws, the relationship between the military and the authority, civilian rule, commitment to existing political legitimacy, and the nature of the relationship between the three institutions of authority in a way that achieves balance are highlighted. As we now see, the Israeli government is attempting to make judicial amendments with the aim of increasing the encroachment of the executive authority and the decline of the judicial authority.

This explains the popular protests and the exposure of the entire regime to the threat of survival. It also explains to us the phenomenon of military coups in Niger, the military conflict in Sudan, and the phenomenon of internal wars in many Arab countries, such as Libya, Iraq, and Syria, and its cause is the attempt of the state to dominate society without taking into account its determinants and developments.

On the other hand, we have rational and effective governance systems that achieve a balance between the state and society, as in the model presented by the Emirates, which is based on the basis of good governance and a rational society.

Perhaps the problem that needs us to understand and analyze is that the state is the one that activates and creates the factors of change in society in addition to the influence of the external factor, and the more the state responds to these changes the more it achieves balance, and this is through expanding the circle of political participation and political empowerment for all segments, including women, alternating power, and neutralizing the role of the army in life. Political. As much as the phenomenon of political institutionalism is rooted and the phenomenon of personal individualism in governance is reduced.

There remains a third factor whose influence cannot be ignored, which is the influence of the external environment, and here the strength of the relationship between the state and society is able to neutralize the negative effects of this factor, which explains to us many developments in our Arab world. Here is the importance of preserving the state due to its connection to the law, preserving society and its stability, and preserving the effectiveness of society. Which gives legitimacy and strength to the state.

This is the missing link in Arab politics, and it is the approach required to achieve good democratic governance and a single citizenship society.