What Is the Role of the State in Your Life in Society - Assignment Example

What is the role of the in your life in society? The role of in the life of an individual in society has many aspects which are either supplementing or contradicting each other. Before attempting to explore dynamics of this relationship, the framework for the discussion has to be defined in terms of what is represented by the terminologies, state and individual. Such definitions can vary according to the angle from which these terms are approached yet for this paper a sociological approach is what is required. Based on this approach, “the state has generally been understood to include the institutions that govern a society, including the government, government bureaucracy, the judiciary, the armed forces and so on” (Henslin, Possamai and Possamai-Inesedy 2011, p.358). Even in a sociological approach, the role of state can be seen and understood in many ways like the Marxian approach that views state as a tool of oppression of the capitalist class, and the “state autonomy perspective” where the state is understood to have a role to safeguard its citizens within the economic and social limitations that it is bound to have (Henslin, Possamai and Possamai-Inesedy 2011, p.358). Anyway, when examined in relation with the state, the individual belongs to the civil sphere “outside of the formal state in which individuals and groups of individuals connect and act, independent of, but often in connection with, the state and the household (Henslin, Possamai and Possamai-Inesedy 2011, p.359). It is this inter-connectedness of the state and the individual that becomes the subject of evaluation in this paper. Health and employment have been considered as the “key determinants of our well-being” and also they have been accepted as “major objectives of European welfare state” (Borsch-Supan and Schroder, p.1). From this, it becomes clear that health and employment (which is a derivative of education), are two areas where the state has a major role to play. Security is another field where the state has always played an important role to such an extent that it has to shoulder the responsibility of “increasing than decreasing life chances for subjects/citizens” (Bedeski, 2007, p.62). The relationship between individual and the state in this regard has two aspects- the responsibility of subjects/citizens towards the state and the reciprocity of this responsibility. The responsibility of subjects/citizens “include, military service, taxes, obedience to laws, some subordination to officials, and tolerance of other particular interests” (Bedeski, 2007, p.68). In return to these responsibilities, it becomes the duty of the state to give protection to the subject/citizen (Bedeski, 2007, p.68). When there was a world-wide change from welfare state to neo-liberal state, the most discussed areas of human life in this regard have been health and education. During this transformation, it has been observed that, “the effective education and health systems have either been privatized (with a resulting hodgepodge of shady schools and medical clinics in the cities) or have slowly slumped to increasingly desperate levels of decrepitude” (Rotberg, 2002, p.88). It is in this wider backdrop that this paper has looked into the three areas of human life, education, health and security, so as to explore the role of state in these areas. Health Coburn (2000) has argued that the neo-liberal state has a negative impact on individual health status (p.135). This is so because according to Coburn (2000), neo-liberalism replaces a “welfare state” with a market-driven state, thereby creating income inequalities whoch in turn gets reflected in individual life as health inequalities (p.138-39). For example, in the Australian society, health care is treated by the state partially as a “commodity” and partially as a “right” of the citizens and hence the citizens have certain amount of sense of security imparted by the state regarding health care (Henslin, Possamai and Possamai-Inesedy 2011, p.505). But in the US, health care is more “a commodity” rather than a “right” and hence the people of the US do not have the same amount of sense of security regarding health care (Henslin, Possamai and Possamai-Inesedy 2011, p.505). The drug market being totally control-free in both the nations, the US and Australia, on the other hand have caused cross-reaction of prescription drugs in individuals acommon issue, which is again an impact of state decisions on individual life (Henslin, Possamai and Possamai-Inesedy 2011, p.508). The “self-regulated” nature of health care system facilitated by the state in both the US and Australia have also resulted in a higher occurrence of medical frauds, which in turn affect the quality of health service that each individual gets (Henslin, Possamai and Possamai-Inesedy 2011, p.509). The role of state in determining individual health becomes more evident when the case of Cuba is examined and Cuba is also an example to prove that it is the state role rather than the general income level in the society that determines the quality of health care that an individual receives. Cuba, though being a poor country, “has achieved wonderful results both in health care, medical education, and advances in vaccines and drugs, with its socialized medicine” (McIntyre and Mooney, 2007, p.54). When the examples of Cuba and the US or Cuba and Australia are compared, it can be concluded that it is the role of the state that has made a powerful difference between these two nations regarding health care that an individual receives. France, a nation which was rated by WHO as the “top performer in health care”, as this nation covered all its subjects and citizens under its public health care system, had moved on to the semi-privatized health care system in 2006 and the result was “less public health care” (McIntyre and Mooney, 2007, p.51-52). This is yet another example of how the individual health care availability decreases when the state role is diminished. Education Elmore and Fuhrman (1995) have pointed to the historical phenomenon of the states being unable to provide equal opportunities of education to all (p.2). This is further explained by showing that it is the level of control that the state imparts on the field of education that results in this inequality (Elmore and Fuhrman, 1995, p.3). Though by offering free education to all at the primary levels, Australia, as a nation, has been envisaging to give equal opportunity to all its citizens, by giving space to private sector in the field of education, the state has here deprived the poor students of their equal rights for education (Henslin, Possamai and Possamai-Inesedy 2011, p.387-88). Similarly in Japan, because of the university admissions being based on highly competitive tests, the rich students whose parents have the money to employ tutors are higher in percentage among those who get admissions (Henslin, Possamai and Possamai-Inesedy 2011, p.389). This is indicative of how a procedure fr university admissions administered by the sate becomes discriminatory for a social group. On the other hand, in Russia, the economic crisis, and the resulting reduction in education budget by the state had caused corruption in allotting good grades, thereby affecting the career and lives of the students (Henslin, Possamai and Possamai-Inesedy 2011, p.389). Looking at another example, Egyptian educational system, it can be seen that the negligence of state in providing proper infrastructure has resulted in poor children not getting “no education at all” (Henslin, Possamai and Possamai-Inesedy 2011, p.391). When many of the Latin American countries, as a result of the adoption of neo-liberalism, put restrictions on the notion of education as a universal human right, free education was denied to many poor students (Hill, 2009, p.129). In this manner, when the role of state changed in the field of education, the individual life was affected not only regarding the availability of educational opportunities, but also in the long run, regarding a whole range of life opportunities like career, and quality of life. Security Security of the individual is another area where the state has a prominent role that can have either positive or negative effect on the former. It is in this context that it is stated, “human security directly confronts the moral dilemma of national security, a dilemma that expresses a conflict between the rights of states and the rights of human beings by giving priority to individual security” (Tadjbakshs and Chenoy, 2007, p.20-21). But recent international happenings have shown that this is not the case in many instances. Many a time individual security gets overridden by notions of state security as was witnessed in the US during the Bush regime when there was an outcry that “a national security agenda” was being pushed forth “at the expense of individual rights” (Hertel and Libal, 2011, p.138). It is also generally observed that “there has historically been a tendency of governments to place national security as the top priority at the expense of individual security and human rights” (Conde, 2004, p.113). This phenomenon was what necessitated that there is an international body like the United Nations and international norms of human rights which could protect individual human security even when it is threatened from the state, who is the normal protector of the same. Even the very existence of the state can be justified only by claiming that “it protected individuals and communities” (MacFarlane and Chong, 2006, p.61). This is an evidence to the fact that individual security and the role of state have been two mutually inclusive concepts but it also has to be remembered that these two notions have always held some mutually contradictory relations as well. The interpretation of individual security from a “statist” perspective alone has become a matter of contention in modern times and thought (MacFarlane and Chong, 2006, p.19). What is meant by this statement is also that more attention is being paid to the negative role that state plays regarding individual security. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is clear that state is an actor which has both positive and negative impacts on human, individual life. In other words, state is a protector of human rights regarding education, health and security but state can at times also become a destroyer of the same. It is the fine balance that the relationship between state and individual attains in these fields that will impart this relationship a constructive edge. But this highly depends on the politics and philosophy of the state, whether it is a welfare state or a neoliberal one. Without determining this politics and philosophy of the state, it is impossible to determine the role of the state in individual life. To conclude, it is the welfare state that commands a positive role in individual life than any other form of state. This is so because: All of us face welfare state interventions at almost every point in the life course. In early childhood, financial support was given to our parents; education laws affected our adolescent lives; during midlife, we may benefit from unemployment compensation and other income support; and once we retire, pension payments determine our income. Throughout the entire life course, health care provision and housing policies shape our daily life (Borsch-Supan, 2011, p.2) The paragraph above reflects the extent to which individual life is connected to the attitudes and decisions of the state. And how individual life changes, when the nature of state is changed. References Bedeski, R.E. 2007, Human security and the Chinese state: historical transformations and the modern quest for sovereignty, Taylor & Francis, London. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=tuPPzY6QEqkC&pg=PA70&dq=state+individual+security&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5jchT8P7D86srAfRsIitCA&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=state%20individual%20security&f=false Borsch-Supan, A. 2011, The Individual and the welfare state: life histories in Europe, Springer, Berlin. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=x8dERjoBbB4C&dq=individual+and+welfare+state&source=gbs_navlinks_s Borsch-Supan, A. and Schroder, M. 2011, ‘Employment and health at 50+: an introduction to a life history approach to European welfare state interventions’, in The Individual and the welfare state: life histories in Europe, Springer, Berlin. Coburn, D. 2000 ‘Income inequality, social cohesion and the health status of populations: the role of neo-liberalism’, Social Science and Medicine, Vol.51, pp.135-146. Conde, H.V. 2004, A handbook of international human rights terminology, University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=Z9ehzlDM1kAC&pg=PA113&dq=united+states+human+rights+violations+national+security&hl=en&sa=X&ei=riohT9aoGM3prQeBjInLCA&ved=0CE4Q6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=united%20states%20human%20rights%20violations%20national%20security&f=false Elmore, R.F. and Fuhrman, S.H. 1995, ‘Opportunity to learn and the state role in education’, in Consortium for policy research in education, Washington, 1995, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. Henslin, J.M., Possamai, A. and Possamai-Inesedy, A. 2011, Sociology: a down-to-earth approach, Pearson Australia, Franchs Forest. www.gwu.edu.com Hertel, S. and Libal, K. 2011, Human rights in the United States: beyond exceptionalism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=3DXJXc3KPaIC&pg=PA138&dq=united+states+human+rights+violations+national+security&hl=en&sa=X&ei=riohT9aoGM3prQeBjInLCA&ved=0CEcQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=united%20states%20human%20rights%20violations%20national%20security&f=false Hill, D. 2009, Global neoliberalism and education and its consequences, Taylor & Francis, London. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=9ZVH71TX4NgC&pg=PA129&dq=asia+neoliberal+state+education+expense&hl=en&sa=X&ei=s0IhT-mwPMzorQe1rJCyCA&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=asia%20neoliberal%20state%20education%20expense&f=false MacFarlane, S.N. and Chong, Y.F. 2006, Human security and the UN: a critical history, Indiana University Press, Bloomington. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=LzYHU0WcJWQC&pg=PA61&dq=role+of+state+individual+security&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dkQhT7KoMsTIrQeH_OHACA&ved=0CFkQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=role%20of%20state%20individual%20security&f=false McIntyre, D and Mooney, G.H. 2007, The economics of health equity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=aGXi5vdQh84C&pg=PA53&dq=asia+neoliberal+state+health+care&hl=en&sa=X&ei=eT8hT9nrFoO3rAfJ7NXFCA&ved=0CEQQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=asia%20neoliberal%20state%20health%20care&f=false Rotberg, R.I. 2002, ‘The new nature of nation-state failure’, The Washington Quarterly, Vol.25, No.3, pp.85-96. Tadjbakshs, S. and Chenoy, A.M. 2007, Human security: concepts and implications Taylor & Francis, London. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=kzSgSBxb6iQC&pg=PA21&dq=state+individual+security&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4yUhT72DO5CyrAfd2ZnLCA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=state%20individual%20security&f=false Read More