Abstract

The state is subject of interest to many scientific disciplines: constitutional and international law, sociology, philosophy, administrative and political sciences, social psychology, economics, political and economic history, military sciences, regional studies and, of course, political geography and geopolitics. In the course of history, from ancient to modern times, the state was defined in very different ways.The author comes out in his deliberations from the analysis of the elements that make up the various definitions of the state. Then he reviews the classification of functions that the modern state fulfills and analyzes the way in which they are implemented in various countries around the world, trying to answer the question, is the state necessary for citizens and for what?Finally, the author draws attention to the frequent undertaking of the subject matter of the functioning of the state in the world’s belles-lettres in epic works and in dramas both in the past and nowadays.The last issue raised in the paper is the analysis of the functioning of unrecognized countries, mainly European ones, and what are the consequences of their exclusion from the international community influencing the life of their inhabitants, economy and functioning of their societies.