Session 4- State vs Government

The first thing, which I would like to comment on, is the way Heywood structured his article “Politics.” From defining what a state generally is, to covering the rival theories of the state, to then focusing on the role of the state, Heywood touches upon the topic of state quite extensively.

A question I would like to pursue is how much power and influence should be within the hands of the state and on the other hand, how much power and influence should be in the hands of the government and what really distinguishes the two? While the state is a “political association that exercises sovereign jurisdiction within defined territorial borders,” government on the other hand can be looked upon as a sub category of the state. It falls under the umbrella of the state. While the concept of state is concrete and it is more like an ideology, which goes on for decades, a government of any country, if elected democratically runs for a period of generally 5 years. Thus while governments come and go, the concept of state has its roots dug deep down.

Even with such a distinction, there still exists a major confusion amongst the role of the two. Taking an example of Pakistan only, most of the people use state and government interchangeably, which is not just incorrect, but it is not feasible to determine the performance of the government and linking it to the performance of the state. The state of Pakistan provides the government with everything, its up to the leaders to put the provided resources in action. I believe with a clear-cut distinction between the two, it would finally be possible to divide and understand the two concepts and would allow them both to carry their acts of power and influence justly.