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Balancing State and Community
The state must be strong, but not too strong. Moderation is key.
Any society must find a balance between state and community, in order to avoid the abuse of power by either. The potential abuse of power of the state is fairly straightforward; it may be police officers using unnecessary strength or nepotism in bureaucracy. But the potential abuse of community is as latent and fearsome; religious sects that seek to conquer every aspect of the individuals life or criminal gangs taking over where the state stops.
In short, balance must be achieved in order to guarantee the freedom of the individual.
Above I’ve illustrated the balances between these two entities. India is interesting because the state has little power; civil society (what I here refer to as community) is far stronger than the central authorities. On the other side of the scale, China has a state with all-encompassing power and weak civil society. In the middle, I put the USA because it has achieved somewhat balance. Some may rightfully disagree, but I would infer that this comparison is a good example because the these three countries are the largest countries in the world, and it would therefore be odd to use Norway as a substitute for the USA.
