THE ESSENCE AND PURPOSE OF THE STATE: THE RIGHT TO VIOLENCE AND THE USE OF COERCION IN THE CONTEXT OF UNDERSTANDING THE STATE'S MODERNITY

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to consider the essence, signs, purpose of the state and to derive the author's vision of the essence of the state, its right to use coercion and violence. To achieve this goal, the author used dialectical, sociological-legal, systemic-structural, axiological-legal methods, as well as methods of comparative jurisprudence, analysis and synthesis. A brief description of the features of the state is provided, the classification of approaches to clarifying the essence of the state into eleven groups: legal (G. Jellinek and G. Kelsen), pluralistic (G.J. Lasky, M. Duverger, R. Dahl, R. Dahrendorf), sociological (J.J. Rousseau, T. Hobbes, I. Kant), general welfare state (J. Keynes, J.K. Galbraith), theory of the rule of law (B. Kistiakivskyi, E. Durkheim, J. Hurvych), theory social state (J. Keynes, G. Ritter), convergence theory (J.K. Galbraith, R. Aron, P.O. Sorokin), technocratic and information-cybernetic (J. Bernheim, J.K. Galbraith, D. Bell, T. Veblen), elitist (G. Mosca, V. Pareto, J. Sartori), as well as general social (or political-legal) as universal and most justified today. Such features of the state as the monopoly right to use coercion and violence arising from the Social Contract, to which the author has not referred to the constitution for the first time, are highlighted. It was concluded that the monopoly of the right to use coercion and violence in modern conditions is gradually being lost by the state and can be voluntarily delegated to supranational organizations (UN, OSCE, NATO). It is noted that the use of violence and coercion by the state is possible only in relation to and while considering its other features – the need to observe human rights, norms of international law, limitation of power by law and the constitution as a Social Contract. It is noted that the essence of the state is inextricably linked to its social purpose, which consists in the performance of functions (ensuring social peace and stability in society, creating conditions for the realization of constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens, improving the quality of life of the country's population) and solving tasks arising from the necessity progressive development of society as a whole. It has been noted that the modern state acts as a social arbiter, a body for solving general cases, ensures law and order as well as supports it, using a monopoly on official coercion up to the point of violence, and the possibility of implementing these functions is limited to the sovereign territory of the state. Based on the analysis of the features of the large-scale Russian war against Ukraine, it is argued that international organizations and state unions have the right to use coercion and violence against states whose functioning is contrary to social purpose, as these states commit terrorism or are aggressor states.