Politics and Governance

• Political Science


  A social science that deals with the systematic study of the state and government
• Political science investigates the phenomena of government, as political economy deals with wealth, biology with life, statistics with numbers, and geometry with space and magnitude
• State


  A community of persons, more or less numerous, permanently occupying a fixed territory, and possessed of an independent government organized for political ends to which the great body of inhabitants render habitual obedience
• Nation


  A relation of birth or origin and implies a common race, usually characterized by community of language and customs
• Government


  The agency or instrumentality through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed, and realized
• Essential elements of a state

  • People
  • Territory
  • Government
  • Sovereignty
• People


  The inhabitants of the state, numerous enough to be self-sufficing and to defend themselves and small enough to be easily administered and sustained
• Territory


  The fixed portion of the surface of the earth inhabited by the people of the state, including land mass, inland and external waters, and air space
• Government


  The agency that promotes the welfare of the people, and can be replaced by revolution if it inflicts harm on the people
• Sovereignty


  The supreme and uncontrollable power inherent in a state, including legal sovereignty (authority to issue final commands) and political sovereignty (power behind the legal sovereign)
• Sovereignty is permanent, exclusive, comprehensive, absolute, indivisible, inalienable, and imprescriptible