Session 4 : The Stateless societies

Regardless of the fact that how developed economies have become and how developed they might become in the near future, stateless societies have and probably will continue to exist in the future.

A stateless society is a society that is not governed by a state. In stateless societies, there is little concentration of authority; most positions of authority that do exist are very limited in power and are generally not permanently held positions. There are social bodies that resolve disputes through predefined rules. Stateless societies are highly variable in economic organization, and cultural practices. Size of such societies is usually small and is basically headed by a jury, with one person acting as the head of the jury.

Although stateless states have now reduced dramatically but they still exist within countries. A good example can be Pakistan where a there are tribal areas that are still stateless such as FATA and few areas in Baluchistan. There are many different tribes operating in these areas and each tribe has its own leaders who are responsible for giving judgments and solving problems. These leaders are made usually on the basis of some extra resources that they possess, such as Land. There is no government control in these areas and they have their own laws and forces.

Many of their judgments are based on personal biases and at times are against the basic human rights. The best example can be the “Karo Kari” tradition that is still practiced in Pakistan. If a boy and a girl fell in love with each other, both of them will have to be killed as they have committed a sin. The worst part is that they call it as “honour killing” and the brother or father of the girl is responsible to complete this task.

As every person has his or her own perception for everything, the concept of positivism cannot be applied everywhere and to run a society properly with a general set of rules, its compulsory for people to convert these so called stateless areas into a proper sate.