What is the Role of the State in Your Life in Society - Essay Example

Global Society Name of the Student: Name of the Instructor: Name of the course: Code of the course: Submission date: Global Society Question 2: What is the role of the state in your life in society? Discuss at least three aspects of the state (e.g. education, security) in your answer. Do not rely on your personal examples; use a range of resources for your answer. Introduction The state has been cited to play an integral role in the overall wellbeing and stability of the society. In the past, diverse stakeholders in societal interests as well as scholars from different realms of academia have explored this discourse and come up with some fundamental responsibilities of the state in ensuring that the wellbeing of the upheld. Nonetheless, it is imperative to be cognizant of the fact that there is often ideological antagonism, for instance, between the democrats and the conservatives in the USA on the actual role of the state in the society with some advocating for more state involvement in the society welfare while others advocate for a more laissez-faire approach. However, it is an apparent fact that despite the diversity in these schools of thought, there are some rudimentary roles that the state ought to undertake, some of which will be explored in the subsequent section. This paper will thus focus on the role of the state in my life in society. This will be through analyzing three aspects of the state namely health, education and security. Health The state plays a central role in the provision of healthcare. This is best epitomized in Australia whereby Simon (2006, p. 3) determined that healthcare is perceived as a key responsibility of the state government under the Australian constitution. In order to gain a comprehensive insight into the role of the state in the provision of healthcare, it is prudent to first outline the basic functions of the state in the healthcare system in most of the countries. According to Grimmeisen and Rothgang (2004, p. 2), the functions of the state in the healthcare system can be perceived in three perspectives. Firstly, the state plays a chief role in financing the healthcare which will eventually be provided to the citizens. Secondly, the state plays a central role in the regulation of the healthcare system in most countries and lastly, the state can play a major role in the actual delivery of healthcare services/benefits in the society. All these functions of the state in healthcare play a fundamental role in ensuring that there is extensive accessibility of healthcare by all the members of the society. In regard to financing healthcare in Australia, Simon (2006, p. 7) noted that the healthcare financing system in Australia is a tax-based financing mechanism. This is in the sense that the health is primarily financed by the general government expenditure. Nonetheless, there is also partial participation of the commonwealth government, state and territory governments, private sector as well as the consumers in financing the healthcare services provision in the country. The provision of healthcare services in the public hospitals which are free to all the members of the population in Australia is financed by both the commonwealth government and the territory and state governments. On the other hand, the commonwealth government plays a central role in subsidizing the healthcare services provided to Australians which are offered by the doctors in private practice, pharmacists and optometrists among other practitioners in the health sector. Moreover, a medical safety net for those who cannot afford the payment of healthcare services is also in place, which is also funded by the commonwealth government (Simon, 2006, p. 7). In regard to regulation of healthcare, the responsibilities of regulation, licensing, inspection and the generic monitoring of the premises, institutions and personnel associated with delivery of healthcare fall under the docket of the state and territory governments in the regions under their precinct. In addition the state undertakes the role of policy formulation and implementation for the effective and efficient delivery of health services in Australia (Simon, 2006, p. 4). Lastly, the state plays a central role in the actual delivery of healthcare services/benefits in the Australian society. These are best epitomized by the Medicare Benefit Schedule and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule. In regard to the Medicare Benefit Schedule, the state provides medical benefits to the patients through rebates on the fee which is paid to private doctors among other health practitioners. This is also similar in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule whereby the state provides pharmaceutical benefits to patients through permitting their access to medicines which are subsidized (Simon, 2006, p. 12). Thus, it is apparent from the above discourse that the state plays a central role in the provision of healthcare among members of the Australian society through fulfilling the aforementioned functions. Majority of these functions are also undertaken by the governments in other states, for instance, in New Zealand whereby the Ministry of Health under the wing of the central government has the overall responsibility of funding, regulation, monitoring and the eventual evaluation of the healthcare system in the country (Simon, 2006, p. 24). This reveals a heightened role of the state in the overall provision of healthcare in the society in diverse regions around the globe. Nonetheless, it is important to recognize the fact that there is an increased paradigm shift towards elevated delegation of this role to the private sector in different countries due to the heavy toll of healthcare on government expenditure in different countries. Education Education is another sector which calls for immense government involvement. This phenomenon is evident in Australia whereby under the Australian constitution, the state and the territory governments share a joint responsibility in the provision of education. Thus, the basic roles of the state in education in Australia involve the regulation of school education as well as the funding and administration of the government schools (Harrington, 2011, p. 1). This situation is also evident in other countries like the USA whereby there is a high decentralization of funding public education in most states with this basic undertaking heavily relying on the local revenues (Wood & Theobald, 2002, p. 1). Thus, the state plays a central role in financing, regulating as well as assessing the education system in these states towards increased effectiveness in the delivery of education services. In the Australian context, the state has the principle role of ensuring that all the children in the Australian population meet the universal access to education which is usually obligatory up to the age of 16 in Australia. In addition to funding the public/government schools, the state governments also extend supplementary funding to non-governmental schools. The Australian government perceives that latter role as its primary objective to provide ‘educational leadership’ through collaboratively working with state governments and other stakeholders in school education to guarantee that there is learning and teaching for all the school-aged children in Australia (Harrington, 2011, p. 2). The following figure shows the overall Australian, state and territory governments’ expenditure in education, both in governmental and non-governmental schools in 2007. Figure 1.0: Australian, state and territory governments’ expenditure in education, 2007 Source: Harrington, M., 2011. The involvement of the state in the provision of education is also evidenced by the allocation of governments from other states in their expenditure towards the education system. This is epitomized whereby Marginson (2007, p. 2) cited that the overall average of education expenditure among the states in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is 5.7%. The Australian government devotes 5.9% of its Gross Domestic product (GDP) on education while the U.K and the US spends 5.9 and 7.4% of their GDP in education respectively. The above figures reveal the elevated role of the state in the provision of education in the society. Nonetheless, recent years have seen the increased trend of acquisition of funds to support education from private sources. This is exemplified in Australia whereby the total of education funding from the private sources towards education is 27.0% while Korea and USA have a total private sources funding in education at 39.5% and 31.6% respectively (Marginson, 2007, p. 2). Security This is the last aspect which will be explored in this analysis. The responsibility of the state in provision of security for its citizens is an old role which dates as back as during the nation-states in Greece. This is whereby the state was mandated with the role of ensuring that the interests of the citizens are not endangered by external threats. It thus established strong defense forces, carried out intelligence undertakings as well as coordinated the execution of attacks on an external party which threated the basic existence of the state as well as its citizens withinthe national borders. It is worth noting that security is one responsibility of the state in the society that has heightened in prominence in recent decades, mostly with the advent of increased threats to the state, for instance, global terrorism as well as other new threats like cyber terrorism. In this regard, governments across the world have increased their investments in security in terms of human resource and weaponry aimed at protecting the citizens at the national level as well as protecting the interests of the state at the international platform. This fact is evident in Australia where Evans (2007, p. 113) determined that there has been an incremental response by the Australian government to the East Timor crisis in 1999, the terrorist attack on the USA in September 2001 as well as the recent attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan. In a specific sense, there has been extensive re-modeling of the Australian army from a force that was previously structured for the purposes of continental defense to a force endowed with the ability to launch preemptive attacks at the international level in service to political interests as opposed to being confined to the geographical environments. Therefore, increased national and international threats can be perceived as the major propellers of the heightened role of the state in the provision of security in the society. At the basic level, the state provides security for the citizens within the borders of the state aimed at ensuring that the wellbeing of the citizens is not endangered, either from national threats as well as international threats. These national threats can mostly be perceived in countries whose stability is threatened by local terror groups, for instance, Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which is an alliance of militant groups in Pakistan. This terror group has been blamed for extensive attacks in the country since its instigation in 2007, including the assassination of Benazir Butto, the former prime minister who was assassinated in 2007. Thus, it is the role of the state to protect the citizens from the threats at the national level which are posed by organized local groups whose primary objective is endangering the welfare of the citizens at the national level. In this sense, the legitimacy of the state is based on its capacity to protect the welfare of the citizens from these groups. At the international level, the government plays a central role in not only protecting the sovereignty of the state but also the interests of the citizens who include residing within the national borders as well as the expatriate who reside in foreign nations. This can be in form of security from physical threats, whether real or presumed as well as other attacks like cyber-terrorism previously mentioned. Thus, emerging forms of threat, for instance cyber war means the increased investment of the defense forces on new technology and analytical potential to protect the integrity of its databases which are core to successful execution of air power operations in case of an international attack. This role of the state in guaranteeing the security of the citizens in the recent times has also been prompted by the probability of some states at the international spectrum developing nuclear weapons among other weapons of mass destruction, for instance, Iran. In this regard, the state has to be prepared to swiftly protect its citizens in case of such projected attacks. Lastly, the state provides security to the properties either individually owned or owned by the state. This fact is epitomized by the increased cases of ships hijacking in international waters, most notably in the Horn of Africa whereby the Al-shabab militia which is allied to the Al-Qaida has been conducting regular attacks on the ships at the Indian Ocean. In this regard, it is the role of the state to provide security on its national borders as well as in the international waters in cooperation with governments from other states. Conclusion From the above discourse, it is evident that the state plays an integral role in the provision of healthcare, education as well as security for its citizens. This is through financing, regulating as well as monitoring the education, health and security systems aimed at ensuring effectiveness in the delivery of services to the society. Nonetheless, most of these undertakings are usually in collaboration with the private sector as well as other stakeholders both at the national and international level. References Evans, M., 2007, ‘Towards an Australian NationalSecurity Strategy:A Conceptual Analysis’, Security Challenges, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 113-130. Grimmeisen, S. &Rothgang, H., 2004, ‘The changing role of the state in Europe’shealth care systems’, Paper prepared for the Second Annual ESPAnet Conference, University of Oxford, University of Oxford, Oxford, pp. 1-23. Harrington, M., 2011, ‘Australian Government Funding for Schools Explained’ Parliamentary Library, Canberra. Marginson, S., 2007, ‘Education: Australia and the OECD’, retrieved 22, Sept. 2012 < http://www.sisr.net/apo/election_education.pdf>. Simon, L.I., 2006, Health Care Financing Policies ofAustralia, New Zealand and Singapore, Legislative Council Secretariat, Hong Kong. Wood, D & Theobald, N.A., 2002, ‘Political responsiveness and equity in public education finance’, retrieved 22, Sept. 2012 . Read More