78 Political Theory
The distinction between state and government is not, however, simply
an academic refinement; it goes to the very heart of constitutional rule.
Government power can only be held in check when the government of the
day is prevented from encroaching upon the absolute and unlimited
authority of the state. This is particularly important given the conflicting
interests which the state and the government represent. The state supposedly
reflects the permanent interests of society – the maintenance of public
order, social stability, long-term prosperity and national security – while
government is inevitably influenced by the partisan sympathies and
ideological preferences of the politicians who happen to be in power. If
government succeeds in harnessing the sovereign power of the state to its
own partisan goals, dictatorship is the likely result. Liberal-democratic
regimes have sought to counter this possibility by creating a clear divide
between the personnel and machinery of government on the one hand, and
the personnel and machinery of the state on the other. Thus the personnel
of state institutions, like the civil service, the courts and the military, are
recruited and trained in a bureaucratic manner, and are expected to
observe strict political neutrality, enabling them to resist the ideological
enthusiasms of the government of the day. However, such are the powers
of patronage possessed by modern chief executives like the US president
and the UK prime minister that this apparently clear division is often
blurred in practice.