Differences between Government and State?

[Broletariat]

I've always known there was a difference, but I never went much further than to say that the State was

"1) A "monopoly of violence" in a given territorial area;
2) This violence having a "professional," institutional
nature; and
3) A hierarchical nature, centralisation of power and
initiative into the hands of a few."

Quoting from the Anarchist FAQ.

That seems a bit basic and rudimentary though, what more specific differences are there.

[kibbutznia]

the government is the individuals who run the state, e.g in the UK the members of parliament who are in the ruling party.

the state is the permanent institution controlled by the government, so the police, fire service, post office, millitary etc

[GPDP]

It's a bit complicated, because Marxists have a different definition for the state. In Marxism, the state is but an instrument of class dominance and oppression, a structure created to consolidate the power of the ruling class in any given society. The structure and purpose of the state is thus inexorably tied to the nature of the class struggle. This is why Marxists call for the overthrow of the bourgeois state and the creation of a workers' state: after a successful revolution, the working class would become the new ruling class over the capitalists, and a new state would come about to reflect this change.

Again, because the nature of a state in society, according to Marxism, depends on the ruling class wielding it, Marxists believe the new workers' state would be fundamentally different in structure and purpose. They see it as a novel new kind of state, one actually geared toward the promotion of the interests of a majority of people as opposed to a minority, as has historically been the case. Anarchists usually would point to such a state and say, with the definition you outlined in mind, that such a structure could not actually be considered a state. I say it just comes down to semantics.

Anyway, as for government, I view the concept to basically entail organized society-wide decision-making. When I think of a good government, I imagine a thoroughly participatory democracy, where decisions are actually made by the majority of people.

Some people, Marxists included, often say communism will do away with government altogether, but I fail to see how that would be the case unless one conflates government with the state. As long as people exist, I think there will always be some kind of issue that must be resolved, projects that must be debated and planned out, and resources that must be allocated to achieve objectives. To do all of this we need some kind of way of organizing politically, in other words, we need government.

[syndicat]

A monopoly over legitimate use of violence in a territory is not sufficient to define a state. the Iroquois confederacy had a territory and could organize violence to defend it. but it wasn't a state. in fact it might be an example of a government that wasn't a state.

A state is a hierarchical power that concentrates decision-making authority and information into the hands of a few. it has this structure in order to fulfill its function: defending a social arrangement in which there is a dominating, exploiting class, and the other structures of oppression that are tied up with it (such as sexual and racial inequality, in places where the latter exists).

A polity where governance is carried out by the mass of the people directly wouldn't be able to protect the elite class.

Another necessary feature of a state is that it needs to maintain some semblance of legitimacy in the eyes of the mass of the population, to maintain social peace and stability and thus its abiliity to govern. Within the present modern state, so-called "democracy", that is, election of representatives, is important to this feature of the state.

government is the structure of governance, where the decisions are made. this can exist as part of a state apparatus or without a state. a society governed through general assemblies and delegates (rather than representatives) might not be a state but it would have a government. self-government is a form of government.

[Misanthrope]

State: A person/s that claim the legitimate use of force on a given territory, they control the populations with the threat of death. The state is an instrument of class rule. Once capitalism collapses, the state will collapse, they rely on each other.

Government: The structure of governance. Not to be confused with the state.