THE STATE AND THE INDIVIDUAL

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE STATE OVER ITS CITIZENS ? MUST IT BE SOLELY A PROVIDER ? wHAT ARE THE CITIZEN S RESPONBILITIES , IF ANY ? READ THE TEXT BELOW AND DISCUSS THESE QUESTIONS IN OUR MEET CLASSES THESE ARTICLES ARE FOR INTERPRETTERS CUPEI S STS ADVANCED LANGUAGE SEMINARS he State and the Individual Download PDF News Published: 17 August 1871 The State and the Individual Nature volume 4, pages301–302 (1871)Cite this article 8630 Accesses Metricsdetails Abstract TWO opposite views may be held as to the relation which ought to subsist between the Individual and the governing power of the State—views which, in their extreme form, may be expressed thus—the Paternal, in which the State does everything for the Individual, and the Independent, in which he is left to shift for himself in every respect, except protection from actual aggression by foreign or domestic foes. On the one hand, we are told that it is the duty of the State to have a paternal care over the morals and the welfare of its citizens; on the other hand, that the province of the Government is simply the protection of his person and his goods. To a certain extent both views are correct. The true function of the Executive Government may be laid down as the protection of the individual citizen, and of everything that belongs to him, against adverse influences that are not under his own control. A man's morals are his own concern, and the law has no right to interfere with them or to regulate them, any more than it has to interfere with his religion, provided that in carrying out his views of morality he in no way interferes with his neighbour's welfare or comfort. Then at once the injured party has the right of appeal to the assistance of the law to check his neighbour's aggressive morality or immorality. Article PDF