the State

Have y'all ever seen Will Smith in the movie Enemy of the State? The state referred to in the title is the Political Science definition for the State. There are 4 requirements a place must meet before it can be considered a state:

It has to have definite borders.
It has to have a population
It has to have a government or in other words an institution that makes and enforces public policy.
It must be sovereign or in other words it rules and controls itself.

This is confusing because most of us already think of states as places like Texas, Florida, New York and California, but this is a different definition. By the definition of "state" that we learned today none of these places is a state because they're not sovereign; they are ultimately part of the United States. For our purposes, examples of a state include the United States, Mexico, Canada, England, France, etc...

There are several theories about how the state came to be.
Force theory says that someone used violence to create and control the first state.
Evolutionary theory says that being the head of a family evolved into a government and when tribes became stationary rather than nomadic, the state was born.
Divine Right theory says that God created the state and kings get their power from God to rule.
Social Contract theory says that men started in a anarchic state then used reasoning to decide to start a society. The state is accountable to the people. This is the most important theory for us because it is the foundation on which our democracy (and most democracies) is built. Philosophers like Hobbes, Rousseau and Locke are famous for writing about it.

Assignment #2 today was:
1. Pick the political theory you think is the most likely. Why is the one you chose the most likely? Are there any flaws in the other theories?
2. Define the state.