The Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) has published the book 'The Question of the State: A Treatise on Philosophy, Theory, and Contexts' by Dr Azmi Bishara, general director of ACRPS.
The topics of the 456-page book revolve around the philosophy, theory and emergence of the modern state, the social contract in states, the Hegelian law philosophy in relation to the state, the state as a doctrine (Karl Schmitt), the relationship between the sovereignty of the modern state and citizenship, and the issue of the legitimacy of the state (Max Weber and others).
Dr Bishara tries to probe the challenge of formulating a critical, humane concept of the state that takes into account all the criticisms directed at the concepts of the state by moral and political philosophies, political sciences, sociology, and law, from communal, liberal, or Marxist grounds. He also reviews the effects of globalisation and the post-state stage.
While the book deals with the development of the theoretical concept of the state, it reviews the different narratives of the emergence of states in general, and the modern state in particular, and the growing role of the state. Despite the existence of ideological predictions of the dissolution and demise of the state, its functions have expanded and its importance has increased, and the expectations of individuals and societies from it have increased.
Dr Bishara considers that the critical concept of the state developed in this book draws on and transcends what has been formulated so far. His critique is represented in a conscious formulation of the tension between sovereignty and citizenship, and the ability of contemporary man to realise the tension between the concept of the state on the one hand, and its reality on the other, including in Arab countries.
Dr Bishara indicated that this book is complementary to four of his previous books, namely: Civil Society (1996), The Arab Question (2007), Democratic Transition and Its Problems (2020), Religion and Secularism in a Historical Context, published in two parts (2013; 2014).