Topic 4: The State

• People - Refers to the mass population living within the state.
• A state is a community of persons more or less numerous, permanently occupying a definite portion of territory, having a government of their own to which the great body of inhabitants render obedience, and enjoying freedom from external control.
• People - Refers to the inhabitants or population of a state.
• Without people there can be no functionaries to govern and no subjects to be governed.
• There is no requirement as to the number of people that should compose a state. But it should be neither too small nor too large: small enough to be well-governed and large enough to be self-sufficing.
• People should be politically united. They should have strong national ties because unity is essential to the continuous existence of the state.
• Territory - Consist of the land within the boundaries of the state, the airspace above the land, the inland waters like the rivers, the springs, lakes, bays, mineral and natural resources, and the 12 miles of the sea beyond the state’s coastlines.
• If the state is an archipelago, its territory also consists of the bodies of water surrounding, in between and connecting the islands comprising it, including the seabeds, continental shelves and other marine areas beneath these bodies of water.
• Government - The essential instrument of machinery of the state that carries out its will, purposes, and objectives.
• Government - It refers to the agency through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed and carried out.
• Sovereignty - The supreme power of the state to command and enforce obedience to its will from people within its jurisdiction and to have freedom from foreign control.
• Internal sovereignty - the supreme or absolute power to a state to enforce its will on the people within its territory.
• Internal Sovereignty - The government must possess adequate powers to control and regulate the conduct and affairs of the people within the borders of the state.
• External sovereignty - independence of a state from control by any other state. A state should be recognized and respected by the nation-states. All nation-states enjoy equality under international law
• Absolute - the state is not subject to restrictions by any other power.
• Absolute - It is the supreme power over subjects and the state through its government is the ultimate authority that can enforce the law upon its own people or upon any organization or association within its territory.
• Comprehensive - its supreme legal authority extends to all - the citizens, aliens (foreigners), associations or organizations within its boundaries.
• Permanent - sovereignty is perpetual in the sense that as long as the state exists.
• Indivisible - sovereign is required to respect agreements involving political obligations toward the subjects or toward other sovereigns and the right of private property.
• Legal sovereignty - supreme authority of the state expressed by the law and the constitution.
• Legal sovereignty - Law as a supreme command to be enforced by the ruler upon his people who in turn render habitual loyalty and obedience to the ruler.
• Political sovereignty - the supreme will of the state expressed by the electorate.
• Political sovereignty - Supreme authority of the state is exercised by the electorate in the choice of public officers at least during election time.
• Popular sovereignty - supreme authority of the state which resides in the people.
• Popular sovereignty - The people are the ultimate sources of power and so they allow themselves to be governed. It was said that sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them.
• De facto sovereignty - vested on a person or a group of persons who have succeeded in displacing the legitimate sovereign.
• De facto sovereignty - The authority or coercive power of this person or group of persons exists in fact and is sanctioned by the people within the state territory.
• De jure sovereignty - from the viewpoint of recognizing state. The supreme legal authority of the state is based on the supremacy of law.
• De jure sovereignty - It is formally expressed by the constitution and by the laws enacted conformably with its provisions.
• The state is a political concept, while nation is an ethnic concept.
• A nation is a group of people bound together by certain characteristics such as common social origin, language, customs, and traditions.
• A state is not subject to external control while nation may or may not be independent of external control.
• A single state may consist of one or more nations or peoples.
• The government is only the agency through which the state expresses its will.
• A state cannot exist without a government, but it is possible to have a government without a state.
• A government may change, its form may change, but the state, as long as its essential elements are present, remains the same.
• Elements of state

  • People
  • Territory
  • Government
  • Sovereignty
• Characteristics of sovereignty

  • Absolute
  • Comprehensive
  • Permanent
  • Indivisible
• Types of state sovereignty

  • Legal sovereignty
  • Political sovereignty
  • Popular sovereignty
  • De facto sovereignty
  • De jure sovereignty