Sovereignty, State, and Civil Society

Pengertian kedaulatan (sovereignty), negara (state), dan masyarakat sipil (civil society):

1. Sovereignty : the legal doctrine that states have supreme authority to govern their internal affairs and manage their foreign relations with other states and IGOs. (“World Politics: Trends and Transformation 11th Edition”, Charles W. Kegley,Jr.)

2. Kedaulatan : Adanya suatu pemerintahan yang berkuasa atas seluruh wilayahnya dan segenap rakyatnya merupakan syarat mutlak keberadaan negara. Pemerintah lain atau negara lain tidak berkuasa di wilayah dan atas negara itu . Kekuasaan seperti itu disebut kedaulatan (sovereignty). (“Pendidikan Kewarganegaran untuk SMA dan MA Kelas X”, Retno Listyarti)

3. Sovereignty : Sovereignty is the concept that sovereign power is vested in the people and that those chosen to govern, as trustees of such power, must exercise it in conformity with the general will. (John Locke, Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

4. State : The state is a human society that (succesfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. (Max Weber, www.indonetasia.com)

5. State : The state is the product of class contradictions and class struggle and is controlled by the economically-dominant class. (Karl Marx, “Political Science: A Primer”, penulis Syed Serajul Islam dan Abdul Rashid Moten)

6. Negara : Negara adalah alat (agency) atau wewenang (authority) yang mengatur atau mengendalikan persoalan-persoalan bersama, atas nama masyarakat. (Roger H. Soltau, “Dasar-Dasar Ilmu Politik”, penulis Prof. Miriam Budiardjo)

7. Civil Society : Sebuah ruang dalam masyarakat yang bebas dari pengaruh keluarga dan kekuasaan negara yang diekspresikan dalam gambaran ciri-ciri, yakni individualis, pasar, dan pluralisme. (Zbiginew Rau, “Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan untuk Kelas XI SMA”, penulis Aim Abdulkarim, 2006)

8. Civil Society : The associations we form with others make up what we call civil society. Those associations can take an amazing variety of forms – families, churches, schools, clubs, fraternal societies, condominium associations, neighborhood groups, and the myriad forms of commercial society, such as partnership, corporations, labour unions, and trade associations. Civil society may be broadly defined as all the natural and voluntary association in society. (www.libertarianism.org)

9. Civil society : A community that embraces shared norms and ethical standards to collectively manage problems without coercion and through peaceful and democratic procedures for decision making aimed at improving human welfare. (“World Politics: Trends and Transformation 11th Edition”, Charles W. Kegley,Jr.)