A paternalistic state and civil society

Abstract

The society consists of many different groups of people interacting with each other, civil society and the state, the paternalistic form of which is not a phenomenon of recent centuries. Although the term emerged much later, the phenomenon itself emerged in early history, essentially simultaneously with the formation of families with their patriarchal paternalism. The transfer of the household form of paternalism to the state laid the foundation for the future paternalistic state. At the same time, modern state paternalism differs, as a rule, from the patriarchal model, firstly, by the collective nature of the generation of state interests — the public choice and, secondly, by the democratisation of the very process of formation of these interests. The theoretical and historical analysis provides basis for examining the process of evolution of the paternalistic state with its inherent risks of distorting public choice. The article identifies six stages in the evolution of the state and formulates the fundamental reasons for the failure of society, the state which allows the choice of goals of the paternalistic state that do not correspond to the interests of society, and erroneous strategies for their realisation. The analysis suggests that, having failed to create a mature civil society, for most of the thirty years after socialism the country has lived in conditions of sliding down to the fourth phase of paternalistic state evolution, to its decline and uncertainty of the future.