philpolgov

• Political Science is a systematic study of the state and government
• The word "political" comes from the Greek word "polis," meaning city or sovereign state
• The word "science" comes from the Latin word "scire," meaning "to know"
• Scope of Political Science:

  • Political Theory: doctrines relating to the origin, form, behavior, and purposes of the state
  • Public Law: organization of governments, limitations on government authority, powers and duties of governmental offices, obligations of one state to another
  • Public Administration: methods and techniques used in the management of state affairs
• State is a community of persons permanently occupying a territory, having their own government, and enjoying freedom from external control
• Origin of State:

  • Divine right theory: state is of divine creation, ruler ordained by God
  • Necessity or force theory: states created through force by great warriors
  • Paternalistic theory: states originated from the enlargement of the family
  • Social contract theory: early states formed by a deliberate and voluntary compact among the people
• State and Nation:

  • State is a political concept, nation is an ethnic concept
  • Nation is a group of people bound together by common characteristics, while a state is not subject to external control
  • A state may consist of one or more nations, and a nation may be made up of several states
• Elements of State:

  • People: inhabitants living within the state, can be citizens (natural born, naturalized) or aliens
  • Territory: includes land, rivers, lakes, sea area, air space
  • Government: agency through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed, and carried out
• Kinds of Government:

  • De Jure: organized government with general support of the people
  • De Facto: government exercising power without legal title
• Functions of Government:

  • Ministrant: undertaken to advance general interests of society, optional
  • Constituent: constitute the bonds of society, compulsory
• Structure of Government:

  • Political system: presidential, parliamentary
  • Administrative system: unitary, federal
• Forms of Government:

  • Monarchial: oldest form, supreme authority in the hands of a single person
  • Aristocratic: political power exercised by a few privileged class
  • Democracy: political power exercised by the majority of the people
• Types of Government:

  • Unitary: control of national and local affairs by central government
  • Federal: powers divided between national and local governments
  • Parliamentary: legislature has power to terminate tenure of the real executive
  • Presidential: executive independent of the legislature
  • Totalitarian: prohibits opposing political parties, controls all aspects of public and private lives
  • Military: military holds dominant power
  • Dictatorial: one person or small group has absolute power
  • Islamic Republic: based on Sharia law
  • Republican: people elect representatives to make laws
• • Constitutional: based on a written or unwritten constitution
  • Civilian: not controlled by the military
• Doctrine of Parens Patriae: government's power to act as legal guardian for those unable to care for themselves
• Sovereignty:

  • Supreme power of the state to command its will within its jurisdiction
  • Internal sovereignty: power to rule within its territory
  • External sovereignty: freedom to carry out activities without subjection to other states
• Types of Sovereignty:

  • Internal: power of the state to rule within its territory
  • External: freedom of the state to carry out activities without subjection to other states
• Classifications of Sovereignty:

  • Legal: ultimate power of the state to legislate and enforce laws
  • Political: authority to issue final commands
• Legal sovereign power is the unrestricted power of the state; no one can disobey it
• Political sovereign will transforms into legitimate sovereign law
• Factors influencing legal sovereignty:

  • Lobbyists
  • Electoral/electorate
  • Public opinion through media
  • Business sector
  • Church
  • Non-government offices
• Characteristics of Sovereignty:

  • Comprehensiveness: state's power extends over all within its territorial limits
  • Absolute: state's power is not subject to external or internal limitations
  • Perpetual: lasts as long as the state lasts
  • Inalienable: state cannot transfer or surrender its supreme power without destroying itself
  • Permanence: state's sovereignty continues without interruption as long as the state exists
• Inherent powers of the state:

  1. Power of taxation

  2. Police power

  3. Power of eminent domain
• Constitution:

  • Body of rules and principles for exercising sovereignty
  • 1987 Constitution: written instrument establishing, limiting, and defining government powers for the benefit of the people
• Kinds of Constitution:

  • Conventional or enacted
  • Cumulative or evolved
  • Written
  • Unwritten
  • Rigid or inelastic
  • Flexible or elastic
• Manifestations of Democratic and Republican State:

  • Bill of rights
  • Rule of the majority
  • Government of laws, not men
  • Elections through popular will
  • Separation of powers and checks and balances
  • Legislature cannot pass irrepealable laws
  • Law on public officers
  • State cannot be sued without consent
• Declaration of War vs Declaration of State of War:

  • Philippines renounces war as an instrument of national policy
  • Declares existence of state of war for self-defense
• Doctrine of Territoriality:

  • Advantages: increase internal waters, economic resources, maintain peace and order
  • Increase or decrease of territories does not affect international personalities if 4 elements of state are present
• Article I. National Territory:

  • National territory comprises Philippine archipelago and all territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction
  • Archipelago includes islands and waters forming internal waters of the Philippines
• Article II. Declaration of Principles and State Policies:

  • Philippines is a democratic and republican State
  • Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them
• Section III. Civilian authority is supreme over the military. IV. Government's prime duty is to serve and protect the people

  Section IV. Civilian authority is supreme over the military IV. Government's prime duty is to serve and protect the people

  Section V. Maintenance of peace and order, protection of life, liberty, and property, promotion of general welfare are essential

  Section VI. Separation of Church and State shall be inviolable
• Rationale of separation of Church and State:

  • State and Church are powerful institutions
  • Uniting may result in tyranny
  • Concerned with the people
  • Secular vs Ecclesiastical
  • Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's
• Aspects of Religious Freedom:

  • Freedom to believe without government intervention
  • Freedom to act on one's belief with government intervention if contrary to law, morals, public order, or public policy