The state is like God, some believe that it's the all mighty powerful being that controls all and others just think it's a big overblown idea. The idea of the state (and God) is fairly confusing but rarely ever challenged, except by those rare few who seem to form their own opinions. The state is thought to be merely an idea, an ideological thing or an abstract formal idea. I know that the state is not an object and it doesn't seem logical to me that the state would be an abstract formal idea; the only logical explanation for the state is that of it being an idea. The state can also be seen to hold unknown amounts of power. How the state gets this power, why the state emerged to form this power and why the people legitimize this power is debatable.
In search for a better way of explaining the idea of power, I turn to Marxism. If the state were, as Marx thinks it, a real- concrete object, everything about
Society sees the state as "providing the stability needed for increasing complexity and presumably desirable and beneficial overall growth and development" (Nagengast 116). So, by allowing the state to control and have the power that it needs to achieve these particular things, the society benefits. With the state being an institution, it automatically organizes things; it makes things run more smoothly, like having laws, running in a democratic way and organizing itself so that it benefits to the society not only politically but culturally as well. When the state kind of caters to society's needs, society gives the state the power that they possess. Society recognizes and accepts this power and so it is formed. The state is, in a sense, an ideological thing; society wants the state to be seen as a legitimate thing, it is then recognized.
"Class power is exercised through specific institutions which are
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