Difference Between State and Government?

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Weird question I know but I have heard there is a difference.What would these differences be?

[Decolonize The Left]

Government is used to refer to several different things.
- It is the act of governing.
- It is the office or authority of governing.
- It is the exercise of authority over a group.
- But most common it is used as a term to refer to the organization/system of a given political entity which is used to exercise authority over a population.

In this last definition, government would be something which exists - though it takes many forms. The government is an organization (the government of the USA). It is a political entity which exists within a socio-political structure and, in a nut shell, possesses the legitimate use of force.

The state, on the other hand, refers to a political body which occupies a specific territory (The United States of America). The state is a territory with established boundaries (or often not, such as in the case of Palestine which is appealing for statehood) and usually states have a government which runs the affairs of the state.

So a state is a political body with a given territory.
And a government is the political entity which runs the affairs of the state via direct authority.

Hope that helps,
- August

[Leftsolidarity]

What August said. Also read Lenin's "The State and Revolution".

[WeAreReborn]

Here (http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/kropotkin-peter/1896/state/index.htm) is a good work on it by Kropotkin.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

What Augest said. Also read Lenin's "The State and Revolution".

Already read Lenin's book,but it couldn't hurt to read it again as I am slow on the uptake with any Marxist text.

August West's explanation helped a lot.Thanks!

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Government is used to refer to several different things.
- It is the act of governing.
- It is the office or authority of governing.
- It is the exercise of authority over a group.
- But most common it is used as a term to refer to the organization/system of a given political entity which is used to exercise authority over a population.

In this last definition, government would be something which exists - though it takes many forms. The government is an organization (the government of the USA). It is a political entity which exists within a socio-political structure and, in a nut shell, possesses the legitimate use of force.

The state, on the other hand, refers to a political body which occupies a specific territory (The United States of America). The state is a territory with established boundaries (or often not, such as in the case of Palestine which is appealing for statehood) and usually states have a government which runs the affairs of the state.

So a state is a political body with a given territory.
And a government is the political entity which runs the affairs of the state via direct authority.

Hope that helps,
- August

The state in itself is not a political body. It is a set of institutions which do not breathe, are not organic and have no feelings of themselves. Together, the institutions of the state do inevitably form political jurisdiction as a whole, so perhaps that is where you're coming from and maybe we are just arguing about semantics. But the important thing to notice is that the state isn't a political body in itself, it is merely a neutral arbiter; it is its power that often makes it inevitable that state power is used by political bodies/parties/movements to suppress and dictate.

[syndicat]

governance institutions decide the basic rules for the society, as in a legislature, adjudicate disputes and accusations (as with the judiciary). if there is a state they are a part of the state, the executive of the government is the part that is supposed to have direct authority over the state.

but the state includes not only the governance institutions but also the hierarchical, bureaucratic apparatus of administration, law enforcement, the military machine, prisons, regulatory agencies. this whole bureaucratic apparatus is not directly controllable by the population. it is this way to ensure that the basic economic interests, the dominating classes, are protected and to ensure social order in a particular status quo.

there can be conflicts between the state apparatus and the political leadership of the government...as when President Allende was overthrown in 1973, or when the army and police revolted against the liberal governing coalition of Spain in 1936.

governance institutions could exist without a state. in early horticultural societies sometimes the whole body of citizens (or males) would make the decisions and be the enforcers...if they decided to go to war with some other tribe, they would have to do the fighting. no bureaucratic apparatus apart from the organized people. so in that case there is governance without a state.

[Die Neue Zeit]

governance institutions decide the basic rules for the society, as in a legislature, adjudicate disputes and accusations (as with the judiciary). if there is a state they are a part of the state, the executive of the government is the part that is supposed to have direct authority over the state.

In a number of countries the word "government" is used to refer specifically to the executive, not to the "three branches of government."

[Zav]

I see the State as any form of government with a top-down power structure. Whether that is technically correct or not, I don't know.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

In a number of countries the word "government" is used to refer specifically to the executive, not to the "three branches of government."

Some countries have joined up government.

Also Syndicat is right and i'd add to my first answer that the state includes the bureaucracy, prisons, and security apparatus as well.

[Rooster]

I see the state as a collection of institutions and structures, etc. The government is an aspect of the state where it dictates or directs these institutional bodies (such as nationalised industries, health care, etc). So the state is the structure and the government is the brains.

[Redacrouse]

In short, a government can exist without a state. Communes in a communist society are a form of government. A state is an official body of ruling power. Essentially government is the method or means by which a society is managed, a state is a form of this governing of society. It is necessary to know the difference, that a government does not exclusively mean a state. It is very troublesome when individuals point out falsely that communism and anarchism are without government, ergo disorganized and divided. Such a mentality would opt out the existence of federations or unity of action of communes since that is indeed a form of government without a state.

[syndicat]

In a number of countries the word "government" is used to refer specifically to the executive, not to the "three branches of government."

so what? in popular parlance people often speak of the "government apparatus" as if the state and government were the same. here in the USA this is common in part because "state" is popularly used to refer to geographic units...California, New York etc...as well as the governments thereof.