![\"What](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.johnlaurits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/difference-between-government-and-the-state-distinction-define-definition-governing-states.png?resize=723%2C383&ssl=1\" "\\"What")
<\/p>\nBy John Laurits<\/p>\n
January 13, 2018 (johnlaurits.com)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Much of the US political debate seems to ultimately break down into a meta-debate between what people call \u201cbig\u201d vs. \u201csmall\u201d government \u2014 but how can such a big pile of ideas fit in a word as small as government? The answer is \u2014\u00a0it can\u2019t.<\/em>\u00a0In fact, it is completely nuts to expect one word to hold everything from fire departments, the DMV, and the Iraq War to healthcare, fiscal policy, and the other Iraq War. All of that stuff is just too complex to boil down to pro- and anti-government politics \u2014 and luckily, there are words that can organize this mess. The cause for a lot of confusion is the fact that people tend mix up the concepts of \u201cgovernment\u201d and \u201cstate\u201d and a lot of the time both of them get smooshed into one word. So \u2014 what is the difference between\u00a0government<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0the state?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cGovernment\u201d is a noun that more-or-less describes a bunch of smaller acts of \u201cgoverning\u201d all lumped together \u2014 and governing is basically unavoidable. Whenever people call a meeting to address shared issues or concerns, they are\u00a0governing<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 for example, a neighborhood might get together to fill in a few potholes or mobile home park may pool resources to build a playground or start a community garden\u200a. Stuff like fire departments, public libraries, and fleets of snow plows are simply how people deal with the collective chores that need to be done to avoid getting buried in snow or stupid or on fire. Even if the government somehow vanished today, it would take a massive effort to stop a new one from springing into existence tomorrow because the only real difference between a society and a dumpster fire is the level of organization.<\/p>\n \u201cThe individual has a soul but the state is a soulless machine that can never be weaned from\u00a0the violence to which it owes its existence<\/strong>\u201d The\u00a0origin of the word \u201cgovernment\u201d<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0gubernare,\u00a0<\/em>a word that Latin-speaking folks ripped off from\u00a0the Greek\u00a0kyber<\/em>, which is a verb meaning \u201cto guide or to steer\u201d that was associated with navigating the seas. It\u2019s easy to see how this navigational idea relates to the idea of governing \u2014 the systems of \u201cgovernment\u201d are what a society uses to\u00a0steer<\/em>\u00a0itself\u00a0in the direction it wants to go and\u00a0maneuver<\/em>\u00a0the nation to\u00a0avoid any geopolitical icebergs.<\/p>\n \u201cState\u201d grew from the Latin word\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>status,<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>meaning \u201cposition, condition, order, or arrangement,\u201d which is from the verb\u00a0stare<\/em>, \u201cto stand or be firm.\u201d It was used to talk about someone\u2019s rank or position in a hierarchy in the same way that English-speakers now talk about a person\u2019s \u201cstanding.\u201d Next to word-origin of government in the idea of steering and navigating, the origin of \u201cstate\u201d contrasts so sharply that it is nearly a contradiction \u2014\u00a0to stand firmly in one place<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state is\u00a0a professional apparatus that sets itself apart from the people<\/strong>\u00a0and apart from the institutions the people themselves create. It\u2019s a monopoly on violence that manages and institutionalizes social activity. The people are perfectly capable of managing themselves and creating their own institutions\u201d The state, on the other hand, can only exist by possessing the power to contain its borders and wield authority over its population, which means states are fundamentally authoritarian at the core. States must have the capacity to defend their political structures from any external threat and, maybe just as often, from their own citizens. This is why states tend to fund and develop policing, military, and surveillance organs whether citizens want them or not. Just to exist, the state must separate itself from its citizens and develop its structures of power independently.<\/p>\n Government is more-or-less a repeating pattern of activity that can be shaped and re-shaped to serve whatever purposes a people want \u2014 the main issue is whether the governed can control the governing. Just as part of an individual\u2019s time and resources is absorbed in practical activities (like cleaning, grocery-shopping, bringing the kid to school, etc.), part of society\u2019s labor and resources is absorbed in its own pattern of governing activities. It is a system to direct resources and energy to accomplish necessary or useful goals \u2014\u00a0nothing more<\/em>. Systems can be redesigned\u00a0or replaced \u2014 but disabling or hacking off bits of \u201cthe government\u201d is unlikely to improve society in the same way that setting the tools and cleaning supplies on fire is not likely to improve the condition of a person\u2019s house.<\/p>\n The state has a nasty habit of hijacking government to preserve the level of control it depends on to exist. To sustain the police, military, and intelligence organs necessary to coerce its population, a state needs access to resources and \u2014 since governments are designed to channel resources \u2014 governing can be re-purposed as an interface used to direct a state\u2019s power. If this happens \u2014 and it almost always does \u2014 the state has taken control of the activity which governs the society. In other words, the state is now the one behind the wheel who \u201csteers\u201d the nation and, since a state must treat itself as separate from its citizens, it tends to choose its own destinations.<\/p>\n \u201cAs long as the state exists, there is no freedom. When freedom exists, there will be no state\u201d Problems like the failed war on drugs, authoritarian policing, military interventionism, micro-managing people\u2019s behavior, and mass incarceration are mostly about how the state uses power and authority. Issues of government are more about things like roads, utilities, mediating conflict, public services, environment and resource management, establishing standards, elections, and political organization. If the distinction between state and government became more widely understood, many who hold differing political views might find it easier to agree with each other about the fundamental nature of the problems facing both of them.<\/p>\n If civil-libertarians, for example, understood that left-communists, libertarian-socialists, and many others on the left also opposed the institutionalized coercion of the state, a broader anti-authoritarian front could form in spite of differing views on government organization. The portrayal of the left as champions of \u201cbig government\u201d solutions is not only reductionist and wrong but it acts as an obstacle to any strategic alliance between leftists and genuinely anti-authoritarian groups with differing, non-deal-breaking views* on other issues. No problem can be resolved without understanding it first and, in any case, a bit more precision in the public debate is never be a bad thing.<\/p>\n In solidarity, By John Laurits January 13, 2018 (johnlaurits.com) Much of the US political debate seems to ultimately break down into a meta-debate between what people call \u201cbig\u201d vs. \u201csmall\u201d government \u2014 but how can such a big pile of ideas fit in a word as small as government? The answer is… Continue reading What is Government?<\/em><\/h2>\n
What is the State?<\/em><\/h2>\n
![\"Definition](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.johnlaurits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/definition-of-the-state-vs-government.png?ssl=1\" "\\"Definition")
<\/a>The concept of a \u201cstate\u201d<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is a different can of worms. While government and state tend to overlap a lot in practice,\u00a0the state<\/em>\u00a0is an organization with\u00a0sovereign authority over and against a specific population in a well-defined container of borders.\u00a0The state is a stable, specific, political entity\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 government is more of a fuzzy blob of chores that tend to change over time.\u00a0In ancient Greece, \u201ccity-states\u201d were described<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by Plato as politically-unified communities who shared a distinct language, religion, and culture. Later, the city-state model became further developed in the Roman\u00a0res publica<\/em>\u00a0(aka republic or\u00a0commonwealth<\/em>), which extended\u00a0the city-state\u2019s legal-system to territories under its control. Finally, the modern\u00a0nation-state<\/em>\u00a0emerged after new transportation and communication technologies allowed people to cooperate over nation-sized distances.<\/p>\nThe Opposing Word-Origins of \u2018<\/strong><\/em>Government\u2019 & \u2018State\u2019
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n
\n-Gandhi<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAuthoritarianism in Government vs. the State<\/em><\/h2>\n
\n-Murray Bookchin<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"Police](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.johnlaurits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/police-political-cartoon-liked-it-when-they-drove-around-in-cars.jpg?resize=360%2C254&ssl=1\" "\\"Police")
<\/a>It is possible for government to get by without formal authority \u200a\u2014\u200a it mainly depends on people agreeing to accomplish a set of tasks and goals together. Government\u00a0can<\/em>\u00a0be authoritarian, of course \u2014 and, under the state\u2019s control, it often\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 but it does not\u00a0have<\/em>\u00a0to be. For example, it is hard to imagine anyone demanding to know who authorized another person to fix a street lamp or redirect traffic from the site of a car accident.<\/p>\nGOVERNMENT IS JUST A PATTERN OF ACTIVITY,
\nSTATES INSTITUTIONALIZE POWER & AUTHORITY<\/strong><\/h4>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.johnlaurits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/throwing-away-government.png?resize=666%2C434&ssl=1\" "\\"The")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe \u2018Big\u2019 or \u2018Small\u2019 Government Debate Is Useless<\/strong><\/em>,<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe Real Debate Is About How the State Uses Power<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n
\n-Lenin<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nJohn Laurits<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"