Cicero's Republic says that the country is the cause of the people, and the people are many Cicero.
[1] The combination of the unity of law and the unity of interests. Marxism holds that the state is a violent machine and an organized form of violence used by one class to suppress another. Weber's "Economy and Society" (I): The state is an institutional power operation institution, which monopolizes legal individual coercion when implementing its rules. Dugit: The state is a mass organization. In this organization, people are divided into rulers and ruled. Bodin: The Republic of China is a sovereign country that manages public affairs. Engels: The state is the political authority of the economically dominant class for class rule. In a word, it is an abstract authority, which is based on violence or legitimacy, grows in society and is above society. If we make a list of the internal components of a country according to its scope, the orientation of the country is probably: society-politics-state-government, which is an excessive intermediate from abstract concept to entity concept. The difference between the motherland and the country: the former is the concept of region, culture, history, religion, and sometimes nationality and race, which is rich in feelings; The state is a political authority. The difference between state and government: In the relationship between state and government, sometimes the concepts of state and government are indistinguishable. When the division is very clear, the state is greater than the government, especially the state is synonymous with the sovereign, Weber's "Economy and Society"
The government is only the public servant of the country, the executor of power and the entrusted person. But in the international arena, the concept of state is much broader than domestic politics. At this time, the country is the subject of international law, the representative of the whole society within the country, and the representative of all the people in this country, which is very close to the motherland in domestic politics. The state is the irreconcilable product of class contradictions.
There have been different views and debates about the definition of a country. On the basis of in-depth study of the causes of the emergence of the state and its laws of development and change, and summing up the characteristics of various types of countries and their position and role in social life, Marxism puts forward a comprehensive and scientific definition of the state: "The state is a machine in which one class oppresses another class and one class controls all the ruled classes." This is V·I· Lenin's most comprehensive and accurate summary of Marx and Engels' view of state. It includes three meanings: ① The state is the organization of class society. This shows that the state is a historical phenomenon, which has never existed and will not exist forever. It is the result of the development of contradictory movements within society, the product of irreconcilable class contradictions after the emergence of private ownership and class formation. Similarly, the country is bound to be accompanied by the complete elimination of class and class contradictions.
And die by yourself. This is the objective law of a country's emergence, development and demise. (2) the country is ruled by class. This points out the essence of the country, that is, which class of regime governs the country. In class society, the rule of any class comes from their economic rule, and the economic rule of a class must be maintained and consolidated by its political rule, so the state power always belongs to the economically dominant class. Political rule is the resultant force of the ruling class and the expression of the collective will and strength of the ruling class, which is generally realized through the will of the state. The essence of a slave country is the rule of the slave owner class, the essence of a feudal country is the rule of the landlord class, the essence of a capitalist country is the rule of the bourgeoisie, and the essence of a socialist country is the rule of the proletariat. (3) The country is a machine. It vividly points out that the country is an interconnected organic whole composed of many parts. The main difference between a state organization and other social organizations is that it has the ability to force the ruled class to obey the will of the state. There are officials (cadres) who exercise this power, military, police, courts, prisons and other compulsory organs that realize this power, and there are taxes and national debt that support officials and compulsory organs. These three items constitute an organizational force and material force, that is, a special social force.