73-680: The Gros-de-Vaud is an area of the Swiss canton of Vaud . The Gros-de-Vaud lies between the cities of Lausanne and Yverdon on the North-South direction, and between Moudon and Orbe in the East-West axle. The community of Echallens is its centre and the head of the Gros-de-Vaud district that was created on January 1, 2008. Close to the Lausanne agglomeration (capital of
146-467: A directly democratic form of government that was to have a long afterlife in political thought and history. During Medieval times in Europe, the state was organized on the principle of feudalism , and the relationship between lord and vassal became central to social organization. Feudalism led to the development of greater social hierarchies. The formalization of the struggles over taxation between
219-468: A federal union . A federated state is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federation . (Compare confederacies or confederations such as Switzerland.) Such states differ from sovereign states in that they have transferred a portion of their sovereign powers to a federal government . One can commonly and sometimes readily (but not necessarily usefully) classify states according to their apparent make-up or focus. The concept of
292-441: A certain range of political phenomena . According to Walter Scheidel, mainstream definitions of the state have the following in common: "centralized institutions that impose rules, and back them up by force, over a territorially circumscribed population; a distinction between the rulers and the ruled; and an element of autonomy, stability, and differentiation. These distinguish the state from less stable forms of organization, such as
365-563: A federal state in 1848. The cantons retained far-reaching sovereignty but were no longer allowed to maintain individual standing armies or international relations. As the revolutions of 1848 in Western Europe had failed elsewhere, Switzerland during the later 19th century (and with the exception of the French Third Republic , until the end of World War I ) found itself as an isolated democratic republic, surrounded by
438-407: A federation of states was restored, at the time including 19 cantons (the six accessions to the early modern Thirteen Cantons being composed of former associates and subject territories: St. Gallen , Grisons , Aargau , Thurgau , Ticino , Vaud ). Three additional western cantons, Valais , Neuchâtel and Geneva , acceded in 1815. The process of "Restoration", completed by 1830, returned most of
511-426: A given territory." While defining a state, it is important not to confuse it with a nation; an error that occurs frequently in common discussion. A state refers to a political unit with sovereignty over a given territory. While a state is more of a "political-legal abstraction," the definition of a nation is more concerned with political identity and cultural or historical factors. Importantly, nations do not possess
584-402: A government and its state is one of representation and authorized agency. Charles Tilly distinguished between empires, theocracies, city-states and nation-states. According to Michael Mann , the four persistent types of state activities are: Josep Colomer distinguished between empires and states in the following way: According to Michael Hechter and William Brustein , the modern state
657-482: A particular municipality (the place of origin ) and the canton in which that municipality is part. Cantons, therefore, have a role in and set requirements for the granting of citizenship (naturalisation), though the process is typically undertaken at a municipal level and is subject to federal law. Switzerland has only one federal public holiday (1 August); public holidays otherwise vary from canton to canton . The cantons are listed in their order of precedence given in
730-616: A political philosophy of the state, and to have rationally analyzed political institutions. Prior to this, states were described and justified in terms of religious myths. Several important political innovations of classical antiquity came from the Greek city-states and the Roman Republic . The Greek city-states before the 4th century granted citizenship rights to their free population, and in Athens these rights were combined with
803-538: A popular vote to amend the cantonal constitution or laws or to veto laws or spending bills passed by the parliament. Other than in the instances of general popular assemblies in Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus, democratic rights are exercised by secret ballot. The right of foreigners to vote varies by canton, as does whether Swiss citizens living abroad (and registered to vote in a canton) can take part in cantonal voting. Swiss citizens are citizens of
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#1732772939352876-536: A privileged and wealthy ruling class that was subordinate to a monarch . The ruling classes began to differentiate themselves through forms of architecture and other cultural practices that were different from those of the subordinate laboring classes. In the past, it was suggested that the centralized state was developed to administer large public works systems (such as irrigation systems) and to regulate complex economies. However, modern archaeological and anthropological evidence does not support this thesis, pointing to
949-458: A slightly different definition of the state with respect to the nation: the state is "a primordial, essential, and permanent expression of the genius of a specific [nation]." The definition of a state is also dependent on how and why they form. The contractarian view of the state suggests that states form because people can all benefit from cooperation with others and that without a state there would be chaos. The contractarian view focuses more on
1022-408: A specific state. In the classical thought, the state was identified with both political society and civil society as a form of political community, while the modern thought distinguished the nation state as a political society from civil society as a form of economic society. Thus in the modern thought the state is contrasted with civil society. Antonio Gramsci believed that civil society
1095-407: A state faces some practical limits via the degree to which other states recognize them as such. Definitions of a state are disputed. According to sociologist Max Weber : a "state" is a polity that maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence , although other definitions are common. Absence of a state does not preclude the existence of a society , such as stateless societies like
1168-593: A word for "edge, corner", at the time the literal translation of Early Modern High German ort . After 1490, canton was increasingly used in French and Italian documents to refer to the members of the Swiss Confederacy. English use of canton in reference to the Swiss Confederacy (as opposed to the heraldic sense ) dates to the early 17th century. In the Old Swiss Confederacy,
1241-431: Is a political entity that regulates society and the population within a territory . Government is considered to form the fundamental apparatus of contemporary states. A country often has a single state, with various administrative divisions . A state may be a unitary state or some type of federal union ; in the latter type, the term "state" is sometimes used to refer to the federated polities that make up
1314-402: Is composed of a specialized and privileged body of individuals, who monopolize political decision-making, and are separated by status and organization from the population as a whole. States can also be distinguished from the concept of a " nation ", where "nation" refers to a cultural-political community of people. A nation-state refers to a situation where a single ethnicity is associated with
1387-420: Is considered by some such as Adam Smith as a central function of the state, since these goods would otherwise be underprovided. Tilly has challenged narratives of the state as being the result of a societal contract or provision of services in a free market – he characterizes the state more akin as a protection racket in the vein of organized crime. While economic and political philosophers have contested
1460-414: Is the primary locus of political activity because it is where all forms of "identity formation, ideological struggle, the activities of intellectuals, and the construction of hegemony take place." and that civil society was the nexus connecting the economic and political sphere. Arising out of the collective actions of civil society is what Gramsci calls "political society", which Gramsci differentiates from
1533-528: The Waldstätte . Two important periods in the development of the Old Swiss Confederacy are summarized by the terms Acht Orte ('Eight Cantons'; from 1353 to 1481) and Dreizehn Orte ('Thirteen Cantons', from 1513 to 1798). Each canton of the Old Swiss Confederacy , formerly also Ort ('lieu/locality', from before 1450), or Stand ('estate', from c. 1550 ),
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#17327729393521606-469: The Amazon rainforest , which are uninhabited or inhabited solely or mostly by indigenous people (and some of them remain uncontacted ). Also, there are so-called " failed states " which do not hold de facto control over all of their claimed territory or where this control is challenged. Currently the international community comprises around 200 sovereign states , the vast majority of which are represented in
1679-523: The Andes . It is only in relatively modern times that states have almost completely displaced alternative " stateless " forms of political organization of societies all over the planet . Roving bands of hunter-gatherers and even fairly sizable and complex tribal societies based on herding or agriculture have existed without any full-time specialized state organization, and these "stateless" forms of political organization have in fact prevailed for all of
1752-650: The Haudenosaunee Confederacy that "do not have either purely or even primarily political institutions or roles". The degree and extent of governance of a state is used to determine whether it has failed . The word state and its cognates in some other European languages ( stato in Italian, estado in Spanish and Portuguese, état in French, Staat in German and Dutch) ultimately derive from
1825-693: The Holy Roman Empire , they had become de facto independent when the Swiss defeated Emperor Maximilian I in 1499 in Dornach. In the early modern period, the individual confederate allies came to be seen as republics ; while the six traditional allies had a tradition of direct democracy in the form of the Landsgemeinde , the urban states operated via representation in city councils, de facto oligarchic systems dominated by families of
1898-549: The United Nations . For most of human history, people have lived in stateless societies , characterized by a lack of concentrated authority, and the absence of large inequalities in economic and political power . The anthropologist Tim Ingold writes: It is not enough to observe, in a now rather dated anthropological idiom, that hunter gatherers live in 'stateless societies', as though their social lives were somehow lacking or unfinished, waiting to be completed by
1971-564: The federation , and they may have some of the attributes of a sovereign state , except being under their federation and without the same capacity to act internationally. (Other terms that are used in such federal systems may include " province ", " region " or other terms.) For most of prehistory people lived in stateless societies . The earliest forms of states arose about 5,500 years ago. Over time societies became more stratified and developed institutions leading to centralised governments. These gained state capacity in conjunction with
2044-517: The growth of cities , which was often dependent on climate, and economic development , with centralisation often spurred on by insecurity and territorial competition. Over time, a variety of forms of states developed, which used many different justifications for their existence (such as divine right , the theory of the social contract , etc.). Today, the modern nation state is the predominant form of state to which people are subject. Sovereign states have sovereignty ; any ingroup 's claim to have
2117-656: The patriciate . The old system was abandoned with the formation of the Helvetic Republic following the French invasion of Switzerland in 1798. The cantons of the Helvetic Republic had merely the status of an administrative subdivision with no sovereignty. The Helvetic Republic collapsed within five years, and cantonal sovereignty was restored with the Act of Mediation of 1803. The status of Switzerland as
2190-655: The prehistory and much of human history and civilization . The primary competing organizational forms to the state were religious organizations (such as the Church), and city republics . Since the late 19th century, virtually the entirety of the world's inhabitable land has been parcelled up into areas with more or less definite borders claimed by various states. Earlier, quite large land areas had been either unclaimed or uninhabited, or inhabited by nomadic peoples who were not organised as states . However, even within present-day states there are vast areas of wilderness, like
2263-472: The " status rei publicae ", the "condition of public matters". In time, the word lost its reference to particular social groups and became associated with the legal order of the entire society and the apparatus of its enforcement. The early 16th-century works of Machiavelli (especially The Prince ) played a central role in popularizing the use of the word "state" in something similar to its modern sense. The contrasting of church and state still dates to
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2336-422: The "repressive state apparatus" (such as police and military) in reproducing social relations. Jürgen Habermas spoke of a public sphere that was distinct from both the economic and political sphere. Given the role that many social groups have in the development of public policy and the extensive connections between state bureaucracies and other institutions, it has become increasingly difficult to identify
2409-595: The 16th century, the Old Swiss Confederacy was composed of 13 sovereign confederate allies (the Thirteen Cantons ; German : Die Dreizehn Alten Orte ), and there were two different kinds: five rural states ( German : Länder ) – Uri , Schwyz (which became eponymous of the confederacy), Unterwalden , Glarus , Appenzell – and eight urban states ( German : Städte ) – Zürich , Bern , Luzern , Zug , Basel , Fribourg , Solothurn , Schaffhausen . Though they were technically part of
2482-471: The 16th century. The North American colonies were called "states" as early as the 1630s. The expression "L'État, c'est moi" (" I am the State ") attributed to Louis XIV , although probably apocryphal, is recorded in the late 18th century. There is no academic consensus on the definition of the state. The term "state" refers to a set of different, but interrelated and often overlapping, theories about
2555-570: The Confederation, a directorial system of government is followed by the cantons. The cantonal legislatures are unicameral parliaments , with their size varying between 58 and 200 seats. A few legislatures also involve or did involve general popular assemblies known as Landsgemeinden ; the use of this form of legislature has declined: at present, it exists only in the cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus . The cantonal executives consist of either five or seven members, depending on
2628-488: The Federal Constitution). The cantonal constitutions determine the internal organisation of the canton, including the degree of autonomy accorded to the municipalities , which varies but almost always includes the power to levy taxes and pass municipal laws; some municipalities have their own police forces. As at the federal level, all cantons provide for some form of direct democracy . Citizens may demand
2701-480: The Latin word status , meaning "condition, circumstances". Latin status derives from stare , "to stand", or remain or be permanent, thus providing the sacred or magical connotation of the political entity. The English noun state in the generic sense "condition, circumstances" predates the political sense. It was introduced to Middle English c. 1200 both from Old French and directly from Latin. With
2774-413: The alignment and conflict of interests between individuals in a state. On the other hand, the predatory view of the state focuses on the potential mismatch between the interests of the people and interests of the state. Charles Tilly goes so far to say that states "resemble a form of organized crime and should be viewed as extortion rackets." He argued that the state sells protection from itself and raises
2847-427: The archaeological record as of 6000 BC; in Europe they appeared around 990, but became particularly prominent after 1490. Tilly defines a state's "essential minimal activities" as: Importantly, Tilly makes the case that war is an essential part of state-making; that wars create states and vice versa. Modern academic definitions of the state frequently include the criterion that a state has to be recognized as such by
2920-549: The boundaries of the state. Privatization , nationalization , and the creation of new regulatory bodies also change the boundaries of the state in relation to society. Often the nature of quasi-autonomous organizations is unclear, generating debate among political scientists on whether they are part of the state or civil society. Some political scientists thus prefer to speak of policy networks and decentralized governance in modern societies rather than of state bureaucracies and direct state control over policy. The earliest forms of
2993-655: The canton of Vaud), the Gros-de-Vaud is connected to it by the Lausanne-Echallens- Bercher (LEB) railroad. 46°38′28″N 6°38′04″E / 46.64111°N 6.63444°E / 46.64111; 6.63444 Swiss canton The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the Swiss Confederation . The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as
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3066-562: The canton. For the names of the institutions, see the list of cantonal executives and list of cantonal legislatures . The cantons retain all powers and competencies not delegated to the Confederation by the federal constitution or law: most significantly the cantons are responsible for healthcare , welfare , law enforcement, public education , and retain the power of taxation . Each canton defines its official language(s). Cantons may conclude treaties not only with other cantons but also with foreign states (respectively Articles 48 and 56 of
3139-527: The cantons vary from 37 km (15 sq. mi.) ( Basel-Stadt ) to 7,105 km (2743 sq. mi.) ( Grisons ); the populations (as of 2018) range from 16,000 ( Appenzell Innerrhoden ) to 1.5 million ( Zürich ). The term canton , now also used as the English term for administrative subdivisions of other countries, originates in French usage in the late 15th century (recorded in Fribourg in 1467), from
3212-476: The emergence of a social class of people who did not have to spend most of their time providing for their own subsistence, and writing (or an equivalent of writing, like Inca quipus ) because it made possible the centralization of vital information. Bureaucratization made expansion over large territories possible. The first known states were created in Egypt , Mesopotamia , India , China , Mesoamerica , and
3285-455: The evolutionary development of a state apparatus. Rather, the principal of their socialty, as Pierre Clastres has put it, is fundamentally against the state. During the Neolithic period, human societies underwent major cultural and economic changes, including the development of agriculture , the formation of sedentary societies and fixed settlements, increasing population densities, and
3358-412: The exercise of chiefly power." The most commonly used definition is by Max Weber who describes the state as a compulsory political organization with a centralized government that maintains a monopoly of the legitimate use of force within a certain territory. Weber writes that the state "is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within
3431-562: The existence of several non-stratified and politically decentralized complex societies. Mesopotamia is generally considered to be the location of the earliest civilization or complex society , meaning that it contained cities , full-time division of labor , social concentration of wealth into capital , unequal distribution of wealth , ruling classes, community ties based on residency rather than kinship , long distance trade , monumental architecture , standardized forms of art and culture, writing, and mathematics and science . It
3504-1440: The federal constitution. This reflects the historical order of precedence of the Eight Cantons in the 15th century, followed by the remaining cantons in the order of their historical accession to the confederacy. State (polity) A state
3577-619: The fore: note the res publica of ancient Rome and the Rzeczpospolita of Poland-Lithuania which finds echoes in the modern-day republic . The concept of temple states centred on religious shrines occurs in some discussions of the ancient world. Relatively small city-states , once a relatively common and often successful form of polity, have become rarer and comparatively less prominent in modern times. Modern-day independent city-states include Vatican City , Monaco , and Singapore . Other city-states survive as federated states, like
3650-483: The former feudal rights to the cantonal patriciates , leading to rebellions among the rural population. The Radicals embodied these democratic forces calling for a new federal constitution. This tension, paired with religious issues ("Jesuit question") escalated into armed conflict in the 1840s, with the brief Sonderbund War . The victory of the Liberal-Radicals resulted in the formation of Switzerland as
3723-437: The government is the particular group of people, the administrative bureaucracy that controls the state apparatus at a given time. That is, governments are the means through which state power is employed. States are served by a continuous succession of different governments. States are immaterial and nonphysical social objects, whereas governments are groups of people with certain coercive powers. Each successive government
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#17327729393523796-626: The international community. Liberal thought provides another possible teleology of the state. According to John Locke, the goal of the state or commonwealth is "the preservation of property" (Second Treatise on Government), with 'property' in Locke's work referring not only to personal possessions but also to one's life and liberty. On this account, the state provides the basis for social cohesion and productivity, creating incentives for wealth-creation by providing guarantees of protection for one's life, liberty and personal property. Provision of public goods
3869-411: The lack of war which European states relied on. A state should not be confused with a government; a government is an organization that has been granted the authority to act on the behalf of a state. Nor should a state be confused with a society; a society refers to all organized groups, movements, and individuals who are independent of the state and seek to remain out of its influence. Neuberger offers
3942-572: The late 15th century. Ort was increasingly replaced by Stand (plural: Stände ) ' estate ' about 1550, a term taken to imply liberty and sovereignty. Abolished in the Helvetic Republic, the term 'Stand' was revived in 1815 and remains in use today. The French term canton adopted into German after 1648 , and then only in occasional use until the early 19th century: prominent usage of Ort and Stand gradually disappeared in German-speaking Switzerland from
4015-505: The modern era, since Neuchâtel ceased to be a principality in 1848, all Swiss cantons can be considered to have a republican form of government . Some cantons formally describe themselves as republics in their constitutions. This applies to the Romance-speaking cantons in particular: Geneva (formally République et canton de Genève , 'Republic and canton of Geneva'), Jura , Neuchâtel , Valais , Vaud and Ticino . In
4088-473: The monarch and other elements of society (especially the nobility and the cities) gave rise to what is now called the Standestaat , or the state of Estates, characterized by parliaments in which key social groups negotiated with the king about legal and economic matters. These estates of the realm sometimes evolved in the direction of fully-fledged parliaments, but sometimes lost out in their struggles with
4161-552: The monopolistic tendency of states, Robert Nozick argues that the use of force naturally tends towards monopoly. Another commonly accepted definition of the state is the one given at the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States in 1933. It provides that "[t]he state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with
4234-692: The nation-state, theoretically or ideally co-terminous with a "nation", became very popular by the 20th century in Europe, but occurred rarely elsewhere or at other times. In contrast, some states have sought to make a virtue of their multi-ethnic or multinational character ( Habsburg Austria-Hungary , for example, or the Soviet Union ), and have emphasised unifying characteristics such as autocracy , monarchical legitimacy , or ideology . Other states, often fascist or authoritarian ones, promoted state-sanctioned notions of racial superiority . Other states may bring ideas of commonality and inclusiveness to
4307-439: The notion of the state as a polity. He stated that politics was not a "one-way process of political management" but, rather, that the activities of civil organizations conditioned the activities of political parties and state institutions, and were conditioned by them in turn. Louis Althusser argued that civil organizations such as church , schools , and the family are part of an "ideological state apparatus" which complements
4380-475: The organizational characteristics like geographic boundaries or authority figures and officials that states do. Additionally, a nation does not have a claim to a monopoly on the legitimate use of force over their populace, while a state does, as Weber indicated. An example of the instability that arises when a state does not have a monopoly on the use of force can be seen in African states which remain weak due to
4453-433: The other states." And that "[t]he federal state shall constitute a sole person in the eyes of international law." Confounding the definition problem is that "state" and "government" are often used as synonyms in common conversation and even some academic discourse. According to this definition schema, the states are nonphysical persons of international law , governments are organizations of people. The relationship between
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#17327729393524526-404: The present day German city-states , or as otherwise autonomous entities with limited sovereignty, like Hong Kong , Gibraltar and Ceuta . To some extent, urban secession , the creation of a new city-state (sovereign or federated), continues to be discussed in the early 21st century in cities such as London . A state can be distinguished from a government . The state is the organization while
4599-497: The question about why people should trust a state when they cannot trust one another. Tilly defines states as "coercion-wielding organisations that are distinct from households and kinship groups and exercise clear priority in some respects over all other organizations within substantial territories." Tilly includes city-states, theocracies and empires in his definition along with nation-states, but excludes tribes, lineages, firms and churches. According to Tilly, states can be seen in
4672-437: The recognition of former subject territories as full cantons. The Federal Treaty of 1815 increased the number to 22 due to the accession of former associates of the Old Swiss Confederacy . The canton of Jura acceded as the 23rd canton with its secession from Bern in 1979. The official number of cantons was increased to 26 in the federal constitution of 1999 , which designated former half-cantons as cantons. The areas of
4745-631: The restored monarchies of France , Italy , Austria-Hungary and Germany . The Swiss Federal Constitution declares the cantons to be sovereign to the extent that their sovereignty is not limited by federal law. Areas specifically reserved to the Confederation are the armed forces, currency, the postal service, telecommunications, immigration into and emigration from the country, granting asylum, conducting foreign relations with sovereign states, civil and criminal law, weights and measures, and customs duties. Each canton has its own constitution , legislature , executive , police and courts . Similar to
4818-472: The revival of the Roman law in 14th-century Europe, the term came to refer to the legal standing of persons (such as the various " estates of the realm " – noble, common, and clerical), and in particular the special status of the king. The highest estates, generally those with the most wealth and social rank, were those that held power. The word also had associations with Roman ideas (dating back to Cicero ) about
4891-486: The state emerged whenever it became possible to centralize power in a durable way. Agriculture and a settled population have been attributed as necessary conditions to form states. Certain types of agriculture are more conducive to state formation, such as grain (wheat, barley, millet), because they are suited to concentrated production, taxation, and storage. Agriculture and writing are almost everywhere associated with this process: agriculture because it allowed for
4964-468: The term Ort (plural: Orte ) was in use from the early 15th century as a generic term for the member cantons. The founding cantons specifically were also known as Waldstätte 'forest settlements' (singular: Waldstatt ). The formulaic Stette und Waldstette for the members of the early confederacy is recorded in the mid-14th century, used interchangeably with Stett und Lender ('cities and lands', 'city cantons and rural cantons') until
5037-700: The time of the Helvetic Republic . Only with the Act of Mediation of 1803 did German Kanton become an official designation, retained in the Swiss Constitution of 1848. The term Stand ( French : état , Italian : stato ) remains in synonymous usage and is reflected in the name of the upper chamber of the Swiss Parliament, the Council of States ( German : Ständerat , French : Conseil des États , Italian : Consiglio degli Stati , Romansh : Cussegl dals Stadis ). In
5110-461: The use of pottery and more complex tools. Sedentary agriculture led to the development of property rights , domestication of plants and animals, and larger family sizes. It also provided the basis for an external centralized state. By producing a large surplus of food, more division of labor was realized, which enabled people to specialize in tasks other than food production. Early states were characterized by highly stratified societies, with
5183-480: Was a fully sovereign state with its own border controls, army, and currency from at least the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848, with a brief period of centralised government during the Helvetic Republic (1798–1803). The term Kanton has been widely used since the 19th century. The number of cantons was increased to 19 with the Act of Mediation (1803), with
5256-481: Was differentiated from "leagues of independent cities, empires, federations held together by loose central control, and theocratic federations" by four characteristics: States may be classified by political philosophers as sovereign if they are not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. Other states are subject to external sovereignty or hegemony where ultimate sovereignty lies in another state. Many states are federated states which participate in
5329-594: Was the world's first literate civilization, and formed the first sets of written laws . Bronze metallurgy spread within Afro-Eurasia from c. 3000 BC , leading to a military revolution in the use of bronze weaponry, which facilitated the rise of states. Although state-forms existed before the rise of the Ancient Greek empire, the Greeks were the first people known to have explicitly formulated
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