The State, seen as a legitimate, social, political entity, is endowed with Sovereign Authority – the purpose of which is to govern and regulate the activity of its members or citizens represented by individuals, groups or associations.
Within this domain of governance or regulation, activities that do not require or demand public governance or accounting (that is, those activities that tend to minimally impact on the proper or continued functioning of the State as the legislative, regulative or executive instrument or extension of sovereign and individual citizens) become, in essence, that which requires self-governance; and, as such, is of private interests or no business of the State or the Public.
The State, as a Publicly constituted institution – comprised of sovereign and individual citizens, in and of itself, cannot legitimately wield or use coercive force; except as an instrument:
- In defense of its continued political sovereignty (Territorial nature) when expressed, demanded or expected by the general and Public Will of the citizens.
- Defense of its citizens, social institutions, property and wealth against all forces (external or internal, and therefore, illegitimate) that threaten the State’s right to exist as a sovereign political entity or institution founded on the sovereignty of its citizens – the Public will.
- And, lastly – perhaps, most importantly, the unyielding defense and protection of all citizens (preservation of their collective sovereignty- political will) against any and all forces that threaten the free use or exercise of natural rights to which all men are born or entitled -in pursuit of such things as life, liberty, happiness, accumulation of wealth or property.
Failure to perform the tasks it has been entrusted to do, especially the latter, will lead to dissolution of the State’s sovereign power and authority.
The notion of a Public Sphere finds currency primarily in liberal democracies. It emerged out of a bourgeois ideology which posits that private persons, groups or associations all come together for some common interest(s) – self preservation; a sphere that encompass ideals such as life, liberty and the pursuit of (unencumbered) happiness.
All of this presupposes that the acquisition, accumulation or transference of property, wealth, goods or services, are natural or god-given rights to which all men are entitled. It is that which men are in possession of prior to them first coming together; and by association, they evolve into civil society by virtue of shared common or social interests.
These sovereign and inalienable rights bind men into a cohesive whole (society). They serve as the means or measure by which sovereign individuals – in full possession of inalienable or sovereign rights, acting as individuals who work together for some collective or common interest which is generally the protection of all members of the group (Sovereignty) and all that they, individually or collectively, posses (Natural Rights). This, of course, derives from position that pre-supposes that all men have or possess something in common with one another.
This commonality of purpose is itself inalienable, incapable of being transferred. At best, it can only be approximated as having the appearance of being transferable. And, that being the case, it follows, that it cannot then be taken away against one’s will. It can only restrained, regulated, curtailed or denied. It does not, however, change the fact that it’s a fallacy to suppose that rights (deemed or perceived as being such natural or inalienable) can ever be lost in the strictest sense or meaning of the word, lose.
And so, what civil associations, groups or individuals are capable of doing to one another, in a political sense, is constrained by the very bonds which make it a necessary requirement to the progressive development or evolution of men from social to political animals with common goals, interests and expectation within the public realm of the State.
Citizens of such (legally constituted) states, are sovereign in all things that do not require the intervention or intercession of either the State or any of its legally appointed or designated representatives or state officials (bureaucrat and bureaucracies). That is, professional politicians – distinct from the general populace which is comprised of private citizens with private and individual sovereign rights.
The role or function of the politician, therefore, is to be representative of those private citizens and the protectors of those private rights – in as much that the pursuit of such private rights do not unduly infringe on the right of others who are free to pursue their own self interests in a similar manner and under similar constraints.
The realm of the public sphere is then the administrative, legislative and executive domain of the civil or political body. Anyone not engaged in some officious capacity is then, a private citizen, living private lives with a sovereignty that is outside of the State’s purview. And, as long as citizens, individually or collectively, do not invite or require state officials to interfere or intercede on their behalf in the affairs between private citizens the sovereignty of the individual remains intact in that sense and to that extent is beyond the reach or authority of Law.
This, then, describes and defines – in a general sense, the demarcation between the Public and Private spheres of a liberal, democratic society: the people – singly or in groups, constituted of private persons or associations are bound together by some common self-interest, such as self preservation, acquisition, accumulation or transference of property or wealth. They are, however, subject to state regulations or intervention only in those matters that properly fall within the domain of the State.
Clearly, Sovereign (state) Authority , therefore, requires voluntary consent of the shareholders, the people, the private persons, the associations or representatives of the body politics to be legitimate. In the absence of this voluntary aspect the state is representative of tyranny or abuse of power or authority over sovereign individuals.
The state can only wields its power or authority over the citizens, in the public sphere, as a public authority only in so far as Law proscribes it.
This, then, is what becomes sheltered, regulated or protected by constitutional laws in civil, democratic societies: the common laws (natural rights) which govern the private affairs (self-interests) of sovereign (free) individual citizens within the confines of the political body, the State is inalienable, sovereign and non-transferable.
In essence, the state is a representative embodiment of the legislative, regulatory and executive arm or instrument of the free and sovereign citizens within the body politics.
The appearance of the middle class with capitalist society brought a clear demarcation between public and private spheres of societal affairs. This is reflective within the legislative changes that came about as a result of capitalist pressures that were imposed on previous forms of government – such as monarchy, feudalism or aristocracies. Capitalism, the unfettered accumulation or transference of wealth or property removed the basis upon which social status and power was previously justified.
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