What is a social state

Translated from the Latin language, the term "social" means "public", "general." In other words, this definition is connected with the social life of people. In this regard, a social state is (in a broad sense) any state that is the result of social development. However, in a narrow sense, this power structure has special functions and is endowed with specific properties.

A social state exists and operates in close connection with such phenomena in public life as civil society, democracy, equality, freedom, and law.

It should be noted that the idea of forming such a structure arose by the end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century. The emergence of this idea was the result of objective processes in the social and economic life of society. At the same time, the basic principles - equality and freedom - came into conflict with each other under those conditions.

Theoretically, two approaches to the relationship of freedom and equality in society were formed.

Such figures as Mill, Smith, Locke, Constant and others defended the theory of individual freedom of man. At the same time, the social state should ensure the protection of this freedom from any encroachment, including the authorities themselves. At the same time, these figures understood that, as a result, there would be an inequality, but considered freedom as the highest value.

According to another approach, which proclaimed Rousseau, everything should be subject to the principle of equality while preserving the importance of personal freedom.

The principle of freedom promoted the emancipation of people's initiative and initiative, the development of private enterprises, market relations. Thus, during the strengthening of the economic potential of the bourgeois countries, individual freedom had an economic basis.

However, in the process of accumulation and development of wealth by the end of the 19th century, the property division of society began, its polarization, which threatened with a social explosion. In these conditions, the transition from freedom to equality was necessary. Thus, the emerging social state began to actively intervene in the socio-economic life of the population.

Subsequently, the idea of creating a new power structure received more recognition. The social state began to be embodied in practice, and its qualities and functions were reflected in the constitutions of modern countries.

For the first time such an organization of power was formed in the FRG. In one way or another, the principles of the social state are reflected in the constitutions of Portugal, Italy, France, Spain, Turkey and other countries.

Of great importance in the practical and theoretical development of the idea of forming this organization of power was the doctrine of Keynes. Under the influence of the views of this English economist, the concept of a state providing universal prosperity arose.

The researchers note that the undoubted catalyst for the development of the idea and its embodiment in public life in the West was the formation of the Soviet system. She constantly declared in her Constitutions and other legal acts the social orientation of her policy.

Despite the fact that the political declaration and the theory of socialism was propagated in the real absence of civil society, democracy, law, freedom, equality, in the opinion of researchers, it is impossible to deny the real achievements in the sphere of social policy of the socialist countries.

According to many authors, the formation of a social state is possible only in democratic conditions, and the system of organization of power must be legal (in the modern sense of this quality). Today, as experts note, the process of the formation of this structure is not only political and economic, but also moral.