112 Political Theory: The Relationship of Man and the Statewhere one of the tenets calls for the “withering away of the state,”
i.e., the government, one of the questions posed asked “How can
the necessary functions required by a society be carried out
without government?” The answer given refers to a system of
organizations which would run the operations necessary to serve
the people. Organizations or government, or even board of
directors, call it what you will, there is an entity which will exist
for the purpose of carrying out the necessary services a society
requires.
Unifying factors are also a necessary element of the state.
Some of the more obvious factors that tie the people of a state
together are: language, religion, culture, customs, common
history, money, standards of weights and measures, and sym
bols. It is obvious that a state with several different kinds of
currency would have some serious problems. The standardiza
tion of a money supply simplifies, expedites, and indeed makes
possible an economic system, which is essential to the material
well-being of a society. A common language is an obvious
unifying factor, since language is the basis for cultural, histori
cal, and moral values. The history of problems within bilingual
nations (with Switzerland as the obvious exception) is very
evident. There is still a great deal of animosity in Canada
between the French- and the English-speaking people. Religion,
sometimes in conjunction with language, is also a divisive factor
if there is no common ethic. Witness the problems of the
Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, the Catholics and
Moslems in Lebanon, the Jews and Arabs in the Middle East, the
Hindus and Moslems in India—the examples are many.
There are within every state, many unifying factors. If those
important factors are undermined or come into conflict with new
or different concepts, the tranquility of the state will be upset.
This is not to say that the state might not be better off due to the
conflict, or that when tranquility is restored progress will not
have been made. It simply means that unifying factors are
necessary to the existence of an effective state.
The final element of the state is the one which distinguishes
a state from all other entities— sovereignty. A school has people,
territory, unifying factors, and a government or organization to
meet the needs of the school community. A church, a town, a
fraternity, a corporation, and a family have all the elements of a