State and Government: Conceptual Difference and Practical Implications in Postmodernity

Abstract

It is common and unjust to mix up State with government. The State is the whole political society, including government. The Government is mainly identified by the political group that is in the command of a State. The State has the executive, legislative and judicial functions. The government, in its executive function, is busy with managing the social and economical interests of the society, and in accordance with its ideological direction, establishes bigger or smaller levels of intervention. So, government should not be mixed up with executive power, which is composed by the government responsible for the political direction of the State, and by the administration, as a technical and bureaucratic group that helps the government and makes the public machine work. The public administration carries out the government decisions. In postmodernity the functions of the State are still the same, and even the pragmatism of its separation is accepted, however, considering its efficiency and not the necessity of guaranteeing a Democratic State of Right.