ABSTRACT
The quantitative growth of the state has been an ubiquitous phenomenon. In the industrialised capitalist countries, state power has been used to secure substantial reforms in the economic, social and political spheres. In socialist economies, the state defines the matrix within which the whole society operates. Similarly, in the developing world the state permeates social structures. Increasingly, the state has acquired the pre-eminence in society accorded to it by Hobbes in his conception of a Leviathan.1 The pervasiveness of the state's intervention raises fundamental issues about its nature. What is the state? What is its relationship with society? Is it primarily an instrument for the ruling classes to maintain their hegemony? Or is the state's role derived from the functional necessities of modern society? Before we examine these issues it is important to emphasise that the state does not consist of static, timeless institutions with a specific immutable relationship to society. Some governments use the power of the state to initiate fundamental reforms, while others use it to maintain or accentuate hierarchies in society. The state may be generally referred to as constituting "the presence of a supreme authority, ruling over a defined territory, who is recognised as having power to make decisions in matters of government and is able to enforce such decisions and generally maintain order.. . the capacity to exercise coercive authority is an essential ingredient".2
