Public power in primitive society. Signs of the state that distinguish it from the public authority of the primitive communal system

As a result of mastering this topic, the student must:

know

• – concept and stages of development of primitive society;
• – basic patterns of the emergence and development of state and law;
• – features of power in primitive society;
• – the nature and purpose of social norms of primitive society;
• – the main ways of forming law;
• – characteristics of the main theories of the origin of state and law;

be able to

• – determine the type of social norms of primitive society;
• – highlight the features of law that distinguish it from the social norms of primitive society;
• – distinguish between the positions of scientists on the issue of the origin of state and law;
• – independently determine the advantages and disadvantages of the main theories of the origin of state and law;

own

• – skills of independent analysis of state-legal phenomena in the field of the origin of state and law;
• – skills in operating basic concepts and categories on this topic.

Social power in primitive society

According to modern scientific concepts, planet Earth was formed about 4.7 billion years ago from gas and dust matter scattered in the protosolar system. About 3–3.5 billion years ago, as a result of the natural evolution of matter, life arose on Earth and the development of the biosphere began. Human (homo habilis - skillful man) fiddling

to on Earth as a result of a complex and long historical and evolutionary process about 2 million years ago. Human modern look (homo sapiens - Homo sapiens) appeared no later than 40 thousand years ago, and according to some data, even earlier. The first states on the planet began to emerge relatively recently. So, in Ancient Egypt it arose at the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, in China - in the 2nd millennium BC, in the territory of present-day Russia - just over one thousand years ago. In several countries in Africa and Latin America states arose in the 19th – early 20th centuries.

Thus, in the history of mankind there was a fairly long period when it existed and developed without a state and without law. In science this period is called primitive society - the first form of human life in human history, spanning the era from the appearance of the first people to the emergence of the state and law.

Man and human society formed and separated from the kingdom of nature through labor and joint economic activity.

What are the characteristics of a person?

Firstly, a fairly high level of consciousness. Not just consciousness, since scientists have proven that animals also have some kind of consciousness. The level of human consciousness is much higher than that of animals, its evolution has a progressive, vertical orientation, and the consciousness of animals does not develop above a certain level.

Secondly, man, unlike animals, has the ability to create tools and use them. If animals produce changes in nature due to their presence in it, then man puts something indirect between himself and nature, namely tools. At the same time, he influences nature purposefully, consciously.

Thirdly, a person has a certain psychophysical constitution (structure, shape of the skeleton, has speech, etc.).

Fourthly, a person has high degree organization. Joint life activity, collective work presupposes the cooperation of people and thereby at least an elementary division of labor actions between its participants.

In the history of the development of primitive society there are three main stages :

• – primitive herd;
• – clan community;
• - decomposition of the tribal community.

For a significant time in their history, people existed in the conditions of a primitive herd. This was the period of the so-called appropriating economy (hunting, fishing, gathering). The tools were very primitive (stones and sticks), but their very presence raised man above the animal world. Power during this period was not much different from the power that exists in a herd of animals.

Gradually, as tools improved (in human evolution of this period can be distinguished stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age), with the discovery of methods for artificially producing fire, a more extensive and more firmly organized association of people, a clan, appeared than the primitive herd.

Genus - a historically established community of people based on blood kinship, having common property and leading a joint household.

The appropriating economy is gradually being replaced by the producing economy. In science, this period is called the “Neolithic Revolution.” Man begins to engage not only in hunting, fishing and gathering, but also in cattle breeding, agriculture and crafts. Promiscuous sexual relations were replaced by group marriage. However, given that it was almost impossible to establish the real father in such a relationship, the relationship was exclusively through the female line.

At a certain stage in the development of society, a natural division of labor occurred between men and women.

In the increasingly complex household, women began to occupy a dominant position. They played a leading role in such types production activities, like gathering and early hoeing agriculture. All this led to the promotion of women to first place in the clan community.

Dominance of the maternal family (matriarchy - from lat. mater - mother and Greek arche – beginning, power; literally the power of the mother) lasted several millennia.

Under matriarchy, kinship was counted through the mother's line (maternal clan), and the husband moved to live in his wife's ancestral settlement.

As a result of the development of cattle breeding, plow farming, metalworking, increasing the efficiency and importance of male labor, matriarchy is being replaced by patriarchy (from Greek pater father and arche - beginning, power) characterized by patrilineal (patriarchal) clan, in which the origin of kinship is through the male line and the man occupies a dominant position in production and in society.

This was a qualitatively new stage in the development of human society. The group marriage is being replaced by a pair marriage, which placed a reliable one next to the natural mother. own father. In the future, paired marriage is replaced by marriage with male dominance, prohibiting extramarital affairs for women. This is how it appeared patriarchal family community which is characteristic of the final stage of the tribal system.

The stage of decomposition of the clan community precedes the emergence of the state and law and is characterized by the destruction of intraclan ties and the emergence of future state and legal institutions.

The distinctive features of the power of the clan community were the following.

Firstly, the source of power was the entire clan community as a whole. This was a period of so-called direct rule, when people directly exercised full power. It is clear that in relation to that period it is impossible to talk about the existence of legislative, executive and judicial powers in their modern understanding, but members of the clan community themselves established rules of behavior for themselves, ensured their implementation and themselves brought violators of the established order to justice.

Secondly, the highest authority was the general meeting (council) of all adult members of the clan. The council decided all the most important issues in the life of the community, relating to production activities, religious rituals, resolution of disputes between individual clans, etc.

Thirdly, the day-to-day management of the affairs of the clan community was carried out by an elder, usually elected at a meeting by all members of the clan, both men and women. His power was not hereditary.

At any moment, the elder could be replaced by another member of the clan.

It is fundamentally important to emphasize that the elders and other “officials” of the clan (military leaders) participated in the production activities of the clan community on an equal basis with its other members. In the future, when considering the characteristics of a state, this circumstance will need to be remembered, since state officials, unlike elders, are exclusively engaged in management and take absolutely no part in the production activities of society.

Fourthly, power in primitive society was based on authority, respect, and customs. Coercion (sometimes quite severe) was applied to those who violated the order, but there were no special (law enforcement, punitive) bodies for this.

The compulsion came from the entire family. This is also an important circumstance, since state power carries out coercion with the help of special law enforcement agencies.

Fifthly, in social associations broader than the clan (for example, in Greece - phratries, in Russia - tribe) power was based on the same principles as in the clan community.

Thus, power during the period of clan organization of society was built on the principles primitive democracy, There were no special bodies dealing exclusively with management at that time. However, for various reasons, primitive democracy is inevitably replaced by the state, which is a special form of organizing people’s life.

• Theory of state and law as a science and academic discipline
  • Theory of state and law as a science
  • Subject of science: theory of state and law
  • The structure of the science of the theory of state and law
  • Methodology of science, theory of state and law
  • Theory of state and law in the system of humanities
  • Theory of state and law in the system of legal sciences
  • Functions of science, theory of state and law
• Origin of state and law
  • Basic theories of the origin of the state and government
  • Social structure, power and management in primitive society
  • Origin of the state ( modern interpretations)
  • Origin of law
• Concept, essence, typology and functions of the state
  • Concept of state
  • The essence of the state
  • Social purpose and functions of the state
• State power and its mechanism
  • The concept of state power
  • Structure of government
  • Mechanism of state power
  • Principles of organization and activity of the state apparatus
  • Concept and classification of state bodies
  • Public administration and self-government
• Forms of state
  • Concept and elements of the form of state
  • Forms of government
  • Form of government
  • State legal regime
• Law in the system of normative regulation of public relations
  • Concept, signs and general characteristics social norms
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• Essence of law
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• Rules of law
  • Concept and characteristics of the rule of law
  • Structure of the rule of law
  • The relationship between the rule of law and the article of the normative legal act
  • Types of law
• Sources (forms) of law
  • The concept of form and source of law
  • Types of sources (forms) of law
• Legal system
  • Concept and structural elements of the legal system
  • The subject and method of legal regulation as the basis for dividing the legal system into branches
  • Private and public law
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• Lawmaking
  • Lawmaking: concept, principles and types
  • The concept and stages of lawmaking in the Russian Federation
  • Systematization of legislation
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• Realization of the right
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• Interpretation of law
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• Offense
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• Legal liability
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• Legal awareness and legal culture
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  • The concept and general characteristics of the legal culture of society and the individual
  • Legal nihilism
• Law and order
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  • Legal order: concept and structure

Social structure, power and management in primitive society

Having examined the main theories of the origin of the state and law, we see that for the most part they proceed from the fact that the state and law appear only at a certain stage of the historical development of society. In the history of mankind, there was a society that knew neither state nor law. According to modern science, human society arose approximately 40 thousand years ago, while the first states appeared only in the 4th-3rd millennia BC.

Pre-state society is usually called primitive, and the system that existed in it is called primitive communal. It took a significant period of time in the history of mankind - more than thirty thousand years. The question of the periodization of primitive society does not have a clear solution in Russian science. For a long time It was customary to distinguish two periods - matriarchy and patriarchy. Matriarchy is a maternal clan in which the dominant role belonged to the woman and kinship was conducted through the maternal line. Patriarchy is a patrilineal clan, in which kinship was conducted through the paternal line. This period was associated with the process of decomposition of the primitive communal system and the emergence of the state. Options for the periodization of primitive society are proposed, in which three periods are distinguished - early, middle and late, of which the early is the period of formation of the primitive communal system, the middle is the period of maturity, and the late is the period of collapse of primitive society. In other versions, periods of appropriating and producing economies are distinguished, and the latter is associated with the process of decomposition of the primitive communal system and the emergence of the state.

The social structure of primitive society is characterized by two main forms of unification of people - clan and tribe. Almost all the peoples of the world went through these forms.

The clan (tribal community) is historically the first form public association of people. It was a family-production union based on consanguinity, collective labor, joint consumption, common property and social equality. The clan was not a family in the modern sense. A clan is an association of people related to each other by family ties.

Tribe - larger and later public education, which arises with the development of primitive society and the increase in the number of tribal communities. A tribe is a union of tribal communities that has its own territory, name, language, common religious and everyday rituals. The unification of clan communities into tribes was called various circumstances, including such as joint hunting for large animals, repelling enemy attacks, attacking other tribes, etc.

In primitive society there are also such forms of unification of people as phratries and tribal unions. Phratries (brotherhoods) were an intermediate form between clan and tribe and did not exist among all, but only among some peoples (for example, among the Greeks). Tribal unions are associations that arose among many peoples, but already during the period of decomposition of the primitive communal system, either for waging wars or for protection from external enemies.

Clans, phratries, tribes, tribal unions, being various forms social association of primitive people were of the same type, based on blood or presumed relationship.

Power and management during the period of mature primitive society. Power gives society organization, controllability and order. This is public (public) power. Closely related to public power is management, which is a way of exercising power and putting it into practice.

The public power of primitive society has the following features: it was not cut off from society and did not stand above it. It was carried out either by the society itself or by persons chosen by it, who did not have any privileges and could be revoked at any time and replaced by others. This government did not have any special administrative apparatus, which is available in any state. The public power of primitive society was based, as a rule, on public opinion and the authority of those who exercised it. Coercion, if it took place, came from the entire society - clan, tribe, etc. - and any special enforcement bodies in the form of the army, police, courts, etc. It wasn't here either.

The main body of both power and management was the clan assembly, which consisted of all adult members of the clan. It resolved all the most important issues in the life of the tribal community. To resolve current, everyday issues, it chose an elder or leader. The elder or leader was elected from among the most authoritative and respected members of the clan. His power rested solely on the authority and respect for him from other members of the clan. In addition to the elder or leader, the clan assembly elected a military leader, priests, shamans, sorcerers, etc., who also did not have any privileges.

In the tribe, the organization of power and management was approximately the same as in the clan community. The main governing body here, as a rule, was the council of elders (chiefs).

The organization of power and administration in phratries and tribal unions was similar. Here they meet public assemblies, councils of elders, councils of chiefs, military representatives. There is no special apparatus of control or coercion here yet. This begins to appear only with the decomposition of the primitive communal system.

Thus, power in this society was built on the principles of self-government. No special apparatus of control and coercion, which exists in any state, existed here. To put it simply modern concepts, the society itself was parliament, government, and court.

It is well known that the state did not always exist among peoples; its formation was preceded by a primitive communal system - an ancient type of collective or cooperative production. Labor skills were just being formed, the tools of labor were primitive. However, from the moment of the natural emergence of collectivity, human labor becomes collective, i.e. the joint work of all members of the community that acted economic form organizations of people.

The nature of the property was common, in other words, all the tools of labor, as well as the means of subsistence obtained with their help (fruits, fish, animals, etc.) belonged to everyone. Such collectivity, community, was a kind of “communism”, not the result of any socialization, but the natural state of the originally emerging collectivity.

Shape social organization in that period (after the primitive herd) there was a clan, not only as an association of people connected by ties of kinship (descending from one ancestor), but also as a social group formed for joint farming. Became different public organization– the primitive herd was transformed into a clan as a carrier and accumulator of collective labor experience, which was constantly being improved. The clans were united into tribes, and the latter into a union of tribes. A need arose to manage public affairs, that is, a need for power, but the state did not yet exist in the generic structure of society. Although coercive power already existed, it was non-political, because was not associated with the state.

Power is an ancient and ubiquitous, universal property of any social organization, in which the element of domination and the element of subordination are reflected in everything that, being composed of several parts, represents a single whole.

In its original, rudimentary form, the tribal organization is power exercised in the interests of the whole society. Its embodiment was general meetings of members of the clan, tribe, councils of elders as “first among equals”, the head of the clan, the leader of the tribe, who, by seniority, received the right to govern the clan and tribe in the interests of all relatives and fellow tribesmen.

At first, power did not provide any material advantages, but rested only on authority. Subsequently, it began to change and take on new forms that were not originally characteristic of it.

The essence of social norms of primitive society. The concept and signs of social norms of primitive society

Social norms are rules of interaction in society associated with the will and consciousness of people, arising in the process of its historical development, corresponding to a certain type of culture and aimed at organizing social relations.

Signs of social norms:

Social norms are the rules for how people interact in society.

The practical interaction of people in society is carried out in their behavior. Therefore, from the point of view of their content, social norms are represented as general (having multiple actions and addressed to an indefinite circle of people) rules that establish the nature and boundaries of a person’s possible or proper behavior in relation to other people, and thus are rules precisely social interaction. At the same time, the term “rules” is interpreted broadly and refers both to clearly formulated instructions for required or acceptable behavior, and to moral ideals and moral principles that do not have strict formulations.

These are the rules of social interaction that are associated with the will and consciousness of people.

The very presence of social norms as one of the elements of society, a necessary condition for its existence, is objectively determined and, of course, does not depend on the will and consciousness of specific people. This connection lies in the fact that social norms arise and are implemented within the framework of the volitional, conscious activity of people. Moreover, the nature and degree of connection between various social norms and will and consciousness are not the same. Some are created in the process of targeted rule-making and are formalized as detailed requirements for behavior. Others develop in repeatedly repeated acts of behavior, are not separated from it and act as samples and stereotypes of such behavior (customs). Still others are formed as a result of understanding the fundamental ethical ideas, fundamental values ​​of human existence, becoming fixed in the public consciousness, mainly in the form of principles (morality), etc. Thus, social norms differently correlate with the will and consciousness of people, but always arise and function in connection with them.

They are formed in the process of historical development of society and are both its result and a factor in this process.

On the one hand, social norms, being an element of society, arise in the process of its development. Thus, the historical complication of social organization, the emergence of relatively independent spheres of life, such as economics, politics, states, religion, etc., leads to a meaningful differentiation of the primary “mononorms”, the emergence of norms that are different in their social content, regulating the behavior of people in one or another sphere of society, that is, acquiring a subject of regulation that is different from others. This is how political, economic, religious and other norms arise, differing in the scope of their action and the type of regulated relations. And together with historical changes in the spheres of regulated relations, the content of the relevant norms also changes, which, in turn, affects changes in social relations.

On the other hand, by regulating the behavior of people, determining the forms of their socially significant interaction, social norms influence the nature and pace of processes taking place in society, are capable of slowing down or, in this sense, are a factor influencing historical development society. For example, it was noted that the reception by countries Western Europe Roman private law led to the liberalization of their state - political regimes.

Social norms correspond to a certain type of culture, which determines the characteristics of the organization of a particular society.

The correspondence of social norms to a certain type of culture is manifested, first of all, through the features of their content. From this perspective, it is not difficult to see differences in social norms in societies belonging to different cultural traditions, such as those based on Christianity and Islam. It can be said that the cultural differences of these societies are expressed in social norms as clearly as in their religious teachings and philosophical traditions. However, even in legal systems, features cultural traditions are present quite clearly.

Power is an ancient and ubiquitous property of any social organization, to ensure which an element of dominion and subordination is necessary.

In its original, embryonic form, power in primitive society was exercised in the interests of all its members. The power of a primitive society is a way of ensuring public interest by accessible and acceptable means, including resolving issues of inter-tribal peace or military clashes, managing the economy and performing religious rites, resolving controversial issues, coordinating other relations within a tribal association, which was of a purely public nature in the primitive communal system.

Of course, the organizational forms of such power in specific conditions were different. Nevertheless, all adult members of the clan participated in the exercise of public power.

The most important issues concerning the entire clan were resolved by a general meeting. The same assembly elected an elder, a leader or priest, a leader in hunting and other public affairs, who governed everyday life tribal community.

Priests (leaders) in primitive society did not have any advantages; they worked and lived on an equal basis with everyone else. Their power was based on personal authority and merit to the clan, multiplied by the expressed will and trust of the assembly of clan members, and the respect of clan members for the experience of their elders.

In the absence of writing in primitive society, the priest was a kind of transmitter of information and experience from the past and present to the future. More precisely, all the collected experience, abilities, skills and religious ideas, were passed down by priests from generation to generation.

To solve the most important issues, a council of elders and leaders gathered. At such a council, issues were resolved collectively.

With such an organization of power in a primitive society, the creation of a special administrative apparatus was not required, just as there was no need for the presence of punitive bodies; their functions were also carried out by the elder (council of elders), taking into account the opinion of the entire society as a whole.

The head of the clan (leader, elder) could be removed by the general meeting of the clan at any time; they did not have immunity and carried out their functions under the control of the clan.

The armed force of the clan community consisted of all men capable of bearing arms.

Coercion was relatively rare and consisted, as a rule, of imposing duties for wrongdoing. The extreme form of punishment was expulsion from the community. Basically, punishment consisting of condemnation by relatives, elders or leaders was sufficient.

Perhaps the only criterion for the correctness of an action or its condemnation was the approval or censure of relatives (public opinion), especially elders, leaders, and priests. Coercion, as a rule, consisted of the imposition of additional duties for a committed offense.

Expulsion from the community was almost always tantamount to a death sentence. In harsh weather conditions, in the complexity of a solitary hunt, a person was practically doomed to hunger, cold, and ran the risk of being killed by a large animal or another tribe.

In primitive society there were their own certain rules behavior (customs), which in turn are closely related to the already existing religion, morality, family and personal values.

From generation to generation, due to the practical necessity of organizing the social and economic life of the clan, relatively stable rules of behavior developed in primitive society, ensuring the viability of the clan, strengthening its social ties, and economic development. These rules in their generalized form came to be called custom (that is, usual, habitual and generally accepted, normal behavior).

In the interests of all members of the clan, customs consolidated the most rational and rejected erroneous behavior options of people in socially significant situations. In other words, custom is generally accepted under certain conditions and social sphere a historically established traditional rule (norm) of behavior, tested and reinforced by repeated repetition during long-term social practice.

Customs regulated all spheres of activity of primitive man and they acted in conjunction with moral norms that emerged later as ideas about good and evil, honest and dishonest. Customs often took the form of religious rites and were supported not only by force public opinion, the authority of the elder, established practice, vital necessity, but also the threat of punishment from above.

Thus, the understanding of custom in this capacity is given the collective meaning of the social norms of primitive society, which ensured the existence of the appropriating economy and procreation.

The form of human coexistence during the period of the primitive communal system was the clan (primitive clan community), which was an association of people based on consanguinity, joint collective labor, common ownership of tools and products of activity. All this determined the equality of members of the clan and the inseparability of their interests.

Management of the clan was, by its nature, natural self-government: the authorities (meetings of adult members of the clan, leaders, elders, etc.) were included in the object of management itself and were not alienated from it.

For regulatory systems Primitive society is characterized by the following features:

1. Natural (like the organization of power) character, a historically determined process of formation.

2. Action based mechanism of custom.

3. Syncreticity, indivisibility of the norms of primitive morality, religious, ritual and other norms. (Hence their name - “mononorms”, which was introduced by the Russian ethnographer A.I. Pershits.)

4. Prescriptions of mononorms did not have a binding nature: their demands were not regarded as a right or obligation, because they were an expression of socially necessary, natural conditions human life activity. F. Engels wrote about this: “Within the clan system there is still no distinction between rights and duties; for the Indian there is no question whether participation in public affairs, blood feud or the payment of a ransom for it is a right or an obligation; such a question would seem to him as absurd as the question, are food, sleep, hunting a right or a duty? A member of the clan simply did not separate himself and his interests from the clan organization and its interests.

5. Dominance of prohibitions. Mostly in uniform taboo, that is, an indisputable prohibition, the violation of which is punishable by supernatural forces. It is assumed that historically the first taboo was prohibition incest - consanguineous marriages.

6. Distribution only to this clan collective (violation of custom is a “related matter”).

7. The normative and regulatory significance of myths, sagas, epics, tales and other forms of artistic social consciousness.

8. Specific sanctions - condemnation of the offender’s behavior by the clan community (“public censure”), ostracism (expulsion from the clan community, as a result of which the person found himself “without clan and tribe,” which was practically tantamount to death). Bodily injury and the death penalty were also used.

Thus, from all of the above, we can draw the obvious conclusion that power in primitive society was public and had democratic characteristics.