Understanding the Social State

Abstract

Introduction. The central point of the article is the idea that a state, which pretends to be modern, must be social. To prove this idea the authors propose a broad view on social state which duties are not limited to protective and distributive activity, but – what is more important - presupposed to initiate positive social activity of its citizens. The concept of positive social activity the authors treat as such kind of activity, which comes out from the internal needs of persons not from external press of the state by any means. Materials and methods. The research is based on holistic methodology, which allows understanding socialization not as a binary relation between a society and an individual, but as a practice of collective communication of all social actors. This point of view gives social theorists an opportunity to analyze social state as the institute of co-working that requires the policy of inclusivity. Results of study. The formation of positive social activity, on the one hand, is impossible without participation of the state, but, on the other hand, it presupposes the limitation of state power to effect on free choice of individuals to act. If not, a state turns into symbolic social state limiting its activity by protective and distributive roles. The result of this limitation might cause a mood of parasitical consumerism of its citizens and degradation of sociality. Discussion and conclusion. The nature of a state experiences substantial changes in the XX century. We witness the appearance of new type of a state that never exists before. One of the fundamental features of it is a positive social activity of its citizens. Only because of this a state can efficiently cope with the challenges of contemporaneity and acquires the real social essence.