Country Classification According To R M Mac Iver - A Tri Partite Classification Of State and A Bi-Partite Classification Of State
Biography R.M. Mac Iver
R.M. Mac Iver is an American scholar, in statecraft R.M. Mac Iver wrote his teachings in a book entitled "The Web of Government", and in R.M. Another Mac Iver, "The Modern State".
In the book The Web of Government, Mac Iver's essay contains the occurrence of the State, saying that the country occurs from the growth of a family or family. How did the family grow to become a country? This growth or development occurs in stages, through several phases.
The first level or phase is the family or family. In this family, although it is still very simple in nature, there are habits, mores, or custom, as well as power, authority, which cannot be separated from these habits.
In the family there is also the head of the family, who is usually called the Paterfamilias or Patriarch.
The next phase or level is that the family or family grows into a large area and is called a clan headed by a primus inter pares.
The Primus inter pares gradually became the real leader of the clan, and had real power. And it is not surprising that he then appointed his descendants to replace him in power.
Thus, the hereditary office system emerged. And as a result, this family of leaders then becomes a family that leads or rules, that is, strictly speaking, a ruling family. So finally he got a hereditary position called king.
In the growth and development of the family so that it becomes a state, here the role of war must not be forgotten, because it is with the way of war that the family grows larger, but of course there are other ways, for example due to expansion, because of the marriage of a person. one family member with another, and then the two families join.
In his description, Mac Iver only mentioned the results of the development of the family as a country after the territorial-state was reached. And this only happened after passing the feudalism era. While the development between the family and this feudalism, Mac Iver did not mention any names.
Difference between Government, Country and State
Before describing the theory of the occurrence of this state, Mac Iver has first expressed his opinion about the differences between government, government, and the state.
According to Mac Iver Government, State, State is : that the state is the organization, while the government is the organ that runs the administration rather than the organization.
Indeed, scholars of ancient, ancient, paid little attention to the differences between state and government, even sometimes the two definitions are confused with the notion of society.
Mac Iver himself seems to be the same way, this is evident in his description of the classification of countries, in this case he calls it the term "forms of government", the forms of government. Available in the book The Web Of Government, pages 145-266.
But Mac Iver also seems to have realized this, because Mac Iver also touched on the opinion that says that what really distinguishes one form of state from another is the form or system of government.
So actually a description of the forms of government is the same as a description of the forms of the state, it's just that the emphasis is different. When we talk about forms of government the emphasis is on administration, whereas when we talk about forms of the state we focus on the organization.
Furthermore, in his description of the forms of government, in fact what is meant is a description of the forms of the state, Mac Iver said that in fact these forms of government are very difficult to classify, this is because the system of government that has ever existed in the history of state administration is not many can maintain themselves for a long time, because the system must get the influence of new forces, therefore it will change quickly or slowly.
As a result, even though the name is still permanent, the meaning has undergone changes. For example, for example the name or term democracy, the meaning is very different when we compare the notion of ancient democracy, for example that developed in ancient Greece, with the definition of democracy in modern times.
So in conclusion, there is no single form of government that can last eternally, although there are several main types of forms of government, which are sometimes relatively durable. Such a Mac Iver system suggests two classifications of countries; that is :
- a tri partite classification of state,
- a bi-partite classification of state.
1. A tri-partite classification of state
Since time immemorial, it has become a habit for scholars to present the classification of the country into three forms, according to the system or form of government.
So what is used as the basis for the classification of the state is the form or system of government, so based on this difference in the form of government, it is known that there is a classification or classification or classification of state forms.
From the above explanation, it is evident that the notion of the form of a state with the form of government, the staats vorm with the regeringsvorm, the form of state with the form of government, is confused, and even sometimes assumed to be the same. Even though the two meanings are actually very different, but they have a very close relationship, so it is easy to create a tendency to equate them.
Thus, it will also turn out here that Mac Iver himself often equates the notion of a state with a form of government. Because in his description of the forms of government, Mac Iver actually meant a description of the forms of the state.
This first system of classifications of state forms, namely the tri-partite classification system, is also called the traditional classification system, using the basis or criteria for a question.
Who holds the governing power of that country?
Where this has two kinds of purposes, namely :
- How many people hold the governing power of the country ? This has three possibilities; namely, that the power of the government of that country may be held by one, several, or in principle all the people.
- What is the nature of his government ? This means that the government is aimed at the fulfillment of the public interest, this is good, or is it only aimed at fulfilling the interests of the people who hold the governmental power of the State alone, this is a bad character of government.
Based on these criteria, this classification system will produce forms like those found by Greek and Roman scholars, among others: Plato, Aristotle, Polybius and Thomas Aquinas.
Mac Iver's opinion on the country classification that uses the tri-partite classification / traditional classification.
Against this, Mac Iver raises objections or criticisms, which are considered as weaknesses of the system as follows :
- The basis or criteria for the classification of countries with this system, the tri-partite classification, are: differences regarding the form of government, and these differences depend on the answer to the question, who holds the highest governmental power in the country.
Based on this question, many answers cannot be put forward correctly. It seems that the question, who holds the highest governmental power in that country, is actually useless.
Because, according to Mac Iver, many people or all the people can never rule, not even one person can never rule. Because only a few people really hold the highest governmental power in that country.
Mac Iver's opinion has been proven in his description, check Mac Iver's book, in which Mac Iver says that the government in non-primitive countries must always be in the hands of the ruling class, class or group. So government or government is actually class-government. - The classification of countries with this system can be said to be inaccurate, because figures for example these questions can be answered, it seems that the question, how many people hold the highest power in the government of the country, is answered with the answer that the highest governmental power of the country is only one person. In fact, this has contained or contained in it very different forms of government, because the rule of one person can include: Monarchy, this too has many kinds, because it can be absolute, limited or constitutional. Sometimes it can also be a dictator or tyranni. While these forms are actually impossible to be classified into one group.
- In classifying a country it is not sufficient to use only one criterion, for example only by the criteria of who holds the highest governmental power in that country, or it is not sufficient if only based on its constitution, as used in the bi-partite classification system, see below, but must use more criteria than that, because it seems that the feudal state is completely different from the capitalist or socialist countries, although sometimes the name or the term is the same, for example the republic.
2. A bi-partite classification of state
The basis or criterion of this classification system is a basis or reason that is practical, namely using a constitutional basis, which includes the following questions :
- What is the nature of the relationship between one person who holds the head of government rather than the country, "the one", and several people who hold the power of the state government as supporters, "the few", "the one" describes or refers to the head of state, whereas "the few" denotes to or describes the ruling class.
- What is the nature of the relationship between some of the people who hold the governmental power of that country, “the few”, and the people they govern, “the many”. This is a more important question than the first question above, because what is in question here is a matter of accountability, namely whether there is responsibility or not between “the few”, some people who hold the power of state government, with “the many”, the people. who was ruled.
While the second question gets two kinds of answers, namely :
- If several people who hold the governmental power of the country are supporters rather than one person who holds the top leadership of the state government or “the few”, with the people they govern, namely “the many”, it becomes clear that between some people who are the ruling-class with the people if there is a relationship of accountability, the country is a democratic country.
- Whereas if there is no accountability relationship between "the few" and "the many", then the country is an oligarchic state.
So, the classification of countries with this bi-partite classification system produces two major groups of countries, namely: democracy and oligarchy.
Mac Iver opinion on the use of the tri-party classification system
In accordance with the criticisms or weaknesses raised by Mac Iver regarding the use of the tri-partite classification system or the traditional system, especially the third criticism mentioned above, Mac Iver stated that it is necessary to know that in the process of political change in every form of government or country existing at one time, often get the characteristics that match or are the same from several forms of state, namely when the form of the country is developing in a certain direction.
So that in order to classify countries based on the characteristics of their development it can also be implemented, Mac Iver put forward other criteria besides the aforementioned constitutional basis. So, according to Mac Iver, it is not enough to classify a country if you only use one criterion.
Mac Iver's opinion is understandable, because for example, we classify country A as a democratic country, country B is also a democracy. So both are the same, namely a democratic country. But with this alone, in fact we cannot say that country A and country B are the same, because besides that there are certain characteristics that distinguish country A and country B. Suppose based on its economic system, country A is a capitalist country, while country B is a socialist country, it looks like again for example country A is a unitary state, while country B is a federal state.
Therefore, in order to cover all the characteristics, especially the main features, in classifying countries Mac Iver proposes a conspectus of state forms based on four kinds of criteria, and based on those criteria schematically the forms of the state are as follows:
Constitutional Basis
I. Oligarchy
- Monarchy
- Dictatorship
- Theocracy
- Plural Headship
II. Democracy
- Limited Monarchy
- Republic
Economic Basis
- Folk Economy Primitive Government
- Feudal Government
- Capitalist Government
- Socialist Government
Communal Base
- Tribal Government
- Government Policy
- Country Government
- National Government
- Multi-National Government
- Werid Government
Note : if for example we are going to determine which country a country belongs to, then with the basis or criteria set out by Mac Iver as mentioned above, we can look for it by using these principles one by one. For example, Indonesia, with the criteria proposed by Mac Iver to which group, he could look for the following ;
- On a constitutional basis is the republic
- On the basis of the economy is socialist
- On the basis of the alliance is the national state
- On the basis of sovereignty is a unitary state
Meanwhile, in the large group, Indonesia is a democracy. This is according to the table or scheme proposed by Mac Iver, in classifying countries.
