What Are The Functions Of The State — страница 2

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development of ideas; and in plant it provides subsidies for the firms. Lastly, the state acts as a bureaucracy to its labour force within its territorial boundaries. For the country’s own preservation, the state protects its labour force as it doesn’t wish to witness its power reduced, which would subsequently threaten the social wellbeing of the state operators and bureaucrats. This is possibly the most obvious and visible task that the state performs. All six of the above ‘functional theories’ of the state are respected and widely held, in both public and academic opinion. These theories are positive in that they describe what the state is and what it does. There are other theories which are normative, and outline what theorists believe the state should be and what it

should do. R.J.Johnston (1982) argues, “…the state is a major element in modern society and involved in very significant interrelationships with the geography of that society…” This statement suggests that the study of the state is essential to human geographers as it is interrelated with other elements of the subject. The second aspect of the topic is to determine whether the existence of a democratically elected parliament means that there is no Ruling Class in Britain. It is at first necessary to define what is meant by Ruling Class. Having examined different sources of information it can be concluded that the Ruling Class, has traditionally been seen as consisting of aristocratic parliamentary members of established or wealthy families, whose positions were often

passed down from generation to generation, more as an inheritance rather than a political interest. A Bill passed in 1928 meant that a larger proportion of society could vote,ie there existed a more democratically elected parliament, via universal suffrage. However, today in the light of historical knowledge, it is difficult to comprehend the fact that a comprehensive school boy from Brixton has attained the powerful position of Prime Minister. The change to such a democracy has been gradual, it did not happen immediately after this Bill was passed. Over this sixty year period, the configuration of the government has changed, and in general, today ‘anybody’ can become a member of parliament, as opposed to just the elite sovereignty of the past. However, these `anybody’s’

can only become MP’s provided that they have the adequate backing of sponsors and funds, usually from their particular political party. For example, John Major had incredible funding from the conservative party for his campaigning for PM. This funding from political parties has upgraded the exclusiveness of such candidates so that when or if they become MP’s they won’t be just `anybody’s’ but `somebody’s’ ie more of a Ruling Class, as they have money/capital. The difficulty in answering this question is the difference in interpretations of the Ruling Class. The understanding of the Ruling Class which existed before democratic elections came about, is that of an aristocratic sovereignty who constitute the government and who have the ruling power over the nation.

However, since the 1930’s, the government can potentially be comprised of `anybody’ who has the political interest and adequate funds, rather than being made up of solely the elite. Subsequently it can be seen that the existence of a democratically elected parliament does mean that in the traditional sense there is no Ruling Class in Britain today. BIBLIOGRAPHY Collins Concise English Dictionary 1992 (3rd ed.) R.J.Johnston – Geography and the State: An essay in Political Geography… MacMillan, London 1982 P.J.Taylor – Political Geography: World-economy, Nation-state and Locality… Longman, 1988 (2nd ed.)