The initial features of the State is that it is:

a) a social phenomenon;

b) a political phenomenon;

c) is a system that is integrity, which has its own structure and its structure and focused on solving specific problems.

In general, the conceptual description of the state should be done in two ways:

a) "vertically" - unlike the state government from the communal-clan system;

b) "horizontally" - unlike the state from other political institutions of society.

From the authorities of the primitive state of society distinguished by the following:

1. a sign of the "public" power. In fact, the public, that is, the public is all power, but in this case, this term has a specific meaning, namely that the state as an entity, the carrier power is functionally separated from its object (the company), alienated from it (the power of organized on a "subject - object"). This point is manifested in the existence of a professional state apparatus. Authorities, the authorities of primitive societies were organized on the principle of self-government and is in the inside of the society, that is, the subject and object of power coincided (fully or partially). Friedrich Engels observed that tribal elder "is within the society", while the monarchs and other government officials "have to try to be something out of it and over it." Thus, one of the main features of the state is that it is an apparatus of public power. From the point of this feature is characterized as a state political organization of public authority;
2. in tribal society ruled by men, it can be said directly, being united on the grounds of consanguinity. In the state-organized society is directly managed and organized social processes taking place in a particular (national) territory: people fall under the power of the state as a whole or the public agency that manages one or another political subdivision, as long as they are on their territories, that is the power of the state is organized on a territorial basis, and in this sense, the state is the country;
3. a sign of the state treasury, which are associated with the existence of such things as taxes (established by public authority benevolence exacted forced to established amounts and at predetermined time), internal and external loans, government loans, the debts of the state, that is, everything that characterizes the economic activities of the state and ensure its functioning.
In Marxist theory states that "in economic terms, taxes embodied existence of the state." In the academic literature can often find the idea of ​​such a kind that taxes are necessary "for the content of the branched state apparatus is not directly involved in the production of material goods for the content of this public authority" (Prof. M. Baytin). If it were only so, it would be easier not to engage in extortion from the people, and to abolish the apparatus.

Apparently, the emphasis needs to be done here on the fact that the collection of taxes - this is one of the most important methods of forming, replenish the state treasury, which is the material basis of national life, the economic condition of the performance of its functions. Of course, the state apparatus is one of public spending.

From other political organizations, the state is distinguished, above all, its sovereignty. State sovereignty is a unity of two sides:

a) the independence of the state without;

b) the rule of the state in the country.

Independence of the state is limited outside the sovereignty of other states (just as the freedom of one person is limited to the freedom of the other).

Of the sovereignty of the state (the rule of the government) follow other signs of the state, distinguishing it from other political organizations:

- State extends its authority throughout the country, marked the frontier;

- The state has a stable legal relationship with the population (in the form of nationality or citizenship), it distributes its power and provides protection both inside the country and abroad;

- Only the government has the authority to issue generally binding decrees power (legal norm). At the same time it has the right to cancel, to recognize the void any manifestation of any other public authority;

- Only the state has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force (including physical coercion) in respect of the population;

- The state has such a means of influencing what no other political organization has the (army, police, security, prisons, etc.).

Sometimes referred to as a sign of the state law. This is not entirely correct. The right is not an indication of the state as well as the state is not a sign of law. Law and the state - independent phenomena, and each of them has its own set of features.

Law is not a sign of the state, and a sign of the existence of the state in society, which is not the same thing. (State organization of society in the same way gives an indication of the presence in it and right.) If it is a prerogative of the (exclusive rights) of the State for the publication of legal norms, it also does not suggest the right to sign