The fundamental unity of the State has provoked the imagination of various philosophers to explain the nature and degree of this unity. A School of thinkers, known as the Monistic school, holds that individuals composing the state are so completely merged in it that they have no separate existence at all.
The Monistic theory of the state is only an extreme form of the organisimic theory. It implies that the individual, like the cells of an animal body, is so closely associated with the body- politic that he has no real independence and cannot live at all except as part of the whole.
Another school of philosophers known as Monadistic school, holds that the individual is a self-contained unit and that the only bond of unity between the state and the individual is that of geography. According to this theory the state is like heap of sand, particles of which have separate and independent existence of their own.
Still another school known as the Dualistic, is of the opinion that the relation existing between the individual and society is of partial dependence.
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Various other theories have been put forward to explain the nature of the state which may be discussed as follows:
1. The Juridical Theory:
According to this theory, the stale is considered to be a “legal personality with an individual, self- consciousness, and will of its own, somewhat as a natural man has.
” The jurists view the state as an organ for the creation, inter-pretation and enforcement of law and for the protection of all legal rights. In all international relations, the state acts as an artificial legal personality capable of expressing its will apart from the wills of the individuals comprising the State.
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The theory of Social Organism:
This theory has been put forward by a number of sociologists to explain nature of the state and its relations with the individuals.
They have drawn elaborate analogy between the social and animal organism and have tried to prove that just as various cells and organs of an organization are dependent on life of the whole organism, so are they individuals dependent on the state for their existence.
3. The Contractual Theory:
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According to this theory the state came into existence through a covenant or contract among the people at a certain stage of human civilization.
4. The Idealist Theory:
The idealists idealize and deify the state. They declare it to be a march of God on Earth. They regard the state to be personification of “General Wills”, i.e., the better sense of all the people.
They glorify the state and opine that an individual can achieve the highest ends of his existence only in and through the state. Individual is completely subordinated to the state.