The Theory of the State

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to reveal the theoretical assumptions that promote an approach to the theory of the State. The methodology is of a qualitative approach framed in the interpretative-comprehensive hermeneutic type. Thus, it evokes a legal and sociological scientific analysis of the State, and it is exposed with a use of themes, authors, and schools, sometimes juxtaposed, according to an expository order. The results showed that the modern State is a legal and political entity that is located in a fixed territory and that exercises political power over society; the power of the State is energized from a framework of legitimacy and legality; in the State there is support among the institutions to acquire that the state machinery can function in society; politics and the state are intimately related both conceptually and probably, but they should not be equated; the contemporary theory that takes for granted the “substantiation, or “reification” of the State, even to the point of legitimizing the idea of ​​the existence of a “common (illusory) interest” represented in the State, among others. It is concluded that modernism meant relevant sociopolitical and historical transformations for Europe in its conception of the State. The nature of the State encompasses a social and institutional relationship that modulates a system of political-legal domination. The social rule of law is a socio-legal construction for participatory democracy. From institutional power emerges the political power that will establish the legitimacy of the State.