Security Needs as a Fundamental Factor of the State Origin

This study examines the role and impact of human needs and interests on the emergence of the state. Considering the ever-increasing fragmentation of contemporary social cognition, it notes that the analysis of this relationship in modern social science is hampered by the wide range of related data from psychological, legal, political and other sciences. The state of research in the field of human needs and interests is also analysed, and the lack of systematically developed ideas revealing the peculiarities of these phenomena in the contemporary social theory is pointed out. Based on the typology of needs developed by Karen Kh. Momdzhyan, the author shows that the biosocial security needs are one of the most important factors in the emergence of statehood. It is demonstrated that the goal of achieving personal security is largely dependent on the level of social security, and the latter is now mainly provided by the state. Special attention is paid to the problem of subjective characteristics and qualities of human groups, including society and the state; the philosophical foundations of methodological collectivism, which insists that the needs and interests of individuals are directly determined by their social groups, are analysed. Adhering to the position of moderate methodological individualism, the authors problematise the scientific nature of such discourse, pointing to the actual absence of such needs and interests in human groups that would go beyond the needs and interests of the people who form them. The study also examines the conflict paradigm of social interaction, analysing the idea of a ‘conflict of interest’ between an individual and the state or society. The authors conclude that there is a stable relationship between the satisfaction of one’s needs and the realisation of one’s interests and the origin of the state. © Golubev I.S., Zhao Jielin, 2025.