To date, humanity has reached such a level of development that it is not difficult to find answers to any questions. We have achieved success in almost all existing sectors of life: construction, law enforcement, medicine, etc. However, this state of affairs was far from always. Initially, people existed in small structures called families. Later, the question of the inefficiency of these organizational systems in the process of managing large masses of people became apparent. Therefore, families began to grow, which led to the emergence of states.
As for the internal interaction of people in countries, it is carried out on the basis of law. Which at one time replaced violence and religion. Today, law is a key regulator of public relations in any country. As we see, jurisprudence and the state are complementary categories. They developed at all times in parallel. Nevertheless, the difference in national cultures and mentality of all peoples led to the formation of two types of development of the state and law: eastern and western. They are endowed with a mass of unique features and their history, which will be discussed later in the article.
Concept of law
Before considering the western and eastern ways of the development of states and jurisprudence, it is necessary to understand the features of the second category. As mentioned earlier, law is a key regulator of social relations. But in this case, a logical question arises: what is this category? What does it directly consist of? In this case, it should be noted that law is a set of moral standards that are legalized by the state to directly regulate certain aspects of the life of the population. The expression of law is legislative acts. They, as a rule, have a hierarchical system of construction and purpose. At the same time, it is worth noting the fact that law significantly complements the organizational structure of the state. In fact, without jurisprudence, countries simply would not exist.
The concept of government
Politicians and thinkers have at all times wondered what each country individually is. Is this structure exclusively legal or does it come from human genius? Based on this issue, many different theories have been put forward, each of which is characterized by its own characteristics. Today, there is one most general category concept. According to its provisions, the state is a specific social organization, which is characterized by the presence of political power, a coercive method of regulating internal relations and a normative structure, which is a form of expression of law. Moreover, any country is completely independent and to some extent “lively”. The eastern and western ways of the emergence of the state, briefly discussed in this article, allow you to clearly see the formation of powers of a certain type.
How do the state and law relate to each other?
The two categories presented in the article are complementary. However, many people, including some theorists, do not realize the importance of this kind of relationship. The bottom line is that law is part of the state. In other words, the first category creates a special framework and principles of activity on the basis of which any country exists. In addition, law is the main organizational factor due to which people are grouped not just into separate components, but into a whole society. But, as we know, law and the state did not appear at one moment. Their creation took place through many years of formation and theoretical development.
The eastern and western ways of the emergence of the state, briefly discussed in this article, are only complex theories. They were derived to explain some of the features of the historical relationship of countries and jurisprudence. Theories describe in detail the emergence of states. Western and eastern ways of development in this case is a historical phenomenon. That is, they are distinguished on the basis of the territory of existence of specific countries and the characteristics of the culture of their population.
Eastern and Western ways of the emergence of state and law: the essence of the process
Each country and the legal system in it were created over a large amount of time. In other words, these categories have gone a long way before becoming modern. As for the development paths, or rather the theory of their existence, it was formed as a result of the obvious difference between the peoples of the West and the East. For many centuries, the cultures of these societies were isolated from each other. Even in the 21st century, the western and eastern worlds are just beginning to exchange experiences and interact with each other in different fields of activity. But the fact of integration of all countries into the world community does not exclude the peculiarities of states with different cultures. Therefore, the eastern and western ways of the emergence of state and law are actively studied by historians and legal theorists today.
Prerequisites for the emergence of the state - the western and eastern path
Today in the world there are a huge number of countries. But all of them once went through the process of origin and formation. The eastern and western ways of the emergence of the state have some common features. In this case, we are considering exactly the features of countries, because law appeared on the basis of internal moral rules of social families much earlier than any social formations. Thus, the very fact of the creation of the state was due to several interrelated factors, namely:
- a significant role was played by natural phenomena, which were far from always favorable for people;
- the main economic factor is the development of production and, of course, the general market;
- the psychological factor determines the need for people to consolidate into groups to more effectively achieve certain goals;
- social factors suggest that, without exception, legal and state processes develop only within society and are categories emanating from it.
Based on all the features presented, we can conclude that the state and law are phenomena created directly by man in the process of his evolution. In other words, the development of countries and regulatory rules in them indicates a high intellectual level of society, which, of course, is a positive factor. The eastern and western ways of the emergence of the state, law should be considered as complex categories, which makes it possible to highlight their fundamental features.
Jurisprudence and the countries of the East
The eastern, or “Asian,” path of development of the state and law is a set of interconnected processes that caused the emergence of this category in a certain territory. The main distinguishing feature of this part of the world is the dominance of despotism, as one of the key methods of managing society. That is, any democratic processes in the East should not be sought. Indeed, due to various factors, one of which is severe climatic conditions, relations between people in this part of the world have always been distinguished by a high level of dominance of some individuals over others.
A clear indicator of the eastern states is also the economy. It is distinguished by the presence of a public form of ownership. As for the law itself, this category is also largely determined by the general characteristics of the culture and mentality of the population of eastern states.
Key features of the Asian type
The eastern and western ways of state origin are endowed with their own characteristic moments that separate them from each other. To understand the features of each type, it is necessary to analyze its features, which relate to various areas of human activity: economics, politics, etc. In this case, the development of state and law in the East took place through the gradual evolution of social formations from the tribal community to the formed society, which united in the country. Jurisprudence was also subject to social laws formed by strict centralization. Thus, the main reasons for the development of society in the East were:
- Aggressive climate, which necessitated the creation of large irrigation systems, allowing farming even in the middle of deserts.
- The need to subjugate and unite the huge human masses for more effective management.
- The need for a common, single management link to control and regulate the behavior of a huge number of people.
In addition to the listed reasons for the emergence of eastern states, a sufficiently significant feature is the existence of a strong management apparatus in them. It is characterized as uncompromising management, subordinating everyone and everything to its will. Typically, his system included departments of three main areas: financial, military and public. The last branch was responsible for mass work. Thus, the states of the East were characterized as powerful, densely populated bureaucratic structures.
Other features of the development of Asian law and countries
Of course, in addition to the presented aspects, there are other characteristic moments of the development of the eastern countries and the rights in them, for example:
- the legal industry, as a rule, concerned only the most formal procedures, and a person’s daily life was regulated by customs;
- law in most cases was not written down and existed in people's heads;
- the legal status of citizens was not equal due to the division of society into separate groups;
- many institutions of primitive society were borrowed, for example, land-type communities.
Thus, the eastern way of development of the state and law has a huge number of interesting points. However, no less theoretical disputes arise over Western countries and their organization. In this case, the second path of development is closer to the population of the Russian Federation, because our state has evolved on its basis.
Western way of development
The variety of ways the state can emerge allows scientists today to highlight the key cultural and mental differences between the peoples of the East and West. It should be noted that both types of formations are direct opposites of each other. After all, the paths of the state from the very beginning involve the use of different methods of regulation, management, creation and consumption of resources. Therefore, when considering law and Western countries, it is necessary to understand that these are completely different structures that are completely different from those in the East.
Of great importance in this case is the right. The regulator of public relations was born in the western territories quite early. The bottom line is that people realized the benefits of law in the process of interacting with each other. This kind of rationality in the organizational approach led to the rapid formation of states. An interesting fact is that Western countries appeared before society was divided into classes. However, it was the differentiation of society that allowed them to evolve. Thus, we can distinguish the following characteristic features of the development of countries and the rights of this type, for example:
- classes appeared much later than the general organization;
- Law was widely used in all areas of public life: politics, economics, trade, etc.
- jurisprudence allowed the creation of the first democratic institutions that are characteristic of some modern states;
- political power was determined by the wealth of its members;
- society is gradually becoming the main source of power of the state apparatus.
But if the eastern countries in most cases had common features of development and functioning, then in the West several paths of evolution were formed, which are called forms today.
Spartan and Athenian development paths
TGP considers the eastern and western ways of the emergence of the state as interconnected and opposite forms of evolution of many countries that exist today. However, the Western organization of power and law has several branches. One of them is the Athenian path of development of the state and law. This is the most classical form of development of countries. It implies the existence of classes and the political elite. As for the law, it already at that time was divided into several industries, which made it possible to regulate a large number of internal relations. The opposite is the Spartan form of development of the state. This path of development takes its beginning in Ancient Sparta. This state was constantly on alert, which greatly affected many internal affairs. Almost all life activity was regulated by generally binding norms, which did not give the right to choose.
Roman type states
Fundamental for many countries is the Roman path of development. The bottom line is that the state of the same name has developed many legal institutions. It was in Ancient Rome for the first time that the division of law into the public and private sphere began to take place. As for the state apparatus, it incorporated both purely bureaucratic and some democratic features.
Of course, the presented forms are far from the main ways of the state's emergence. Nevertheless, they are also a significant part of many modern political and legal systems. Therefore, they simply cannot be ignored.
Output
So, in the article we examined the eastern and western ways of the emergence of the state. Comparison of these forms showed that the difference between the peoples of both parts of the world is due not only to cultural, but also political and legal features of their development.