CONCEPT OF STATE

Definition
● “A community of persons, more or less numerous, occupying a definite territory,
completely free of external control and possessing an organized government, to
which the great body of inhabitants render habitual obedience” (James Garner)
● “A human society bound together by an order of normative rules…” (Benn and
Peters)

Elements of the State

● PEOPLE
○ Inhabitants or population of a state
○ Number of people is not definite
■ No requirement
● Neither too small nor too large
● Small enough to be well-governed
● Large enough to be self-sufficing
○ Issues
■ Enough food supply and resources?
■ Politically united?

● TERRITORY
○ Terrestrial, fluvial, maritime and aerial domains
■ Land which the jurisdiction of the state extends
■ Rivers and lakes therein
■ Certain area of the sea
■ Air space above it

● GOVERNMENT
○ Instrument or machinery through which the will of state is formulated,
expressed and carried out
■ Composed of agencies and institutions
○ The word sometimes used to refer to the person or aggregate of those
persons
■ Function of political control
■ “Body of men” = “administration”

● SOVIERENITY
○ Supreme power of the state to command and enforce obedience
■ to its will from people
● within jurisdiction
■ to have freedom from foreign control
○ Not absolutely true in practice
■ development of international relations and international law
 ○ Internal Sovereignty
■ Power of the state to rule within its territory or borders
● Regulate and control the people
○ Their conduct and affairs
○ External Sovereignty
■ Freedom of the state to carry out its activities
● Without subjection to or control by other states
■ Often referred to as independence
● Against aggression, invasion or intervention in its domestic
affairs

Theories on the Origin of the State

● DIVINE RIGHT THEORY

○ State is of divine creation
■ Ruler is ordained by God to govern the people

● NECESSITY OR FORCE THEORY

○ States created through force, conquest or coercion = maintain power for
legitimacy
■ Leaders compelled their people to obey
■ Some great warriors who imposed their will upon the weak
● “might makes right”

● PATERNALISTIC THEORY
○ Evolution, enlargement, expansion
■ Family-clan-tribe-nation-state

● SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY

○ Deliberate and voluntary compact among the people
■ Form a society and organize the government
● For common good
■ Justifies the right of people to resist and revolt
● Against a bad ruler
○ Thomas Hobbes: state to preserve peace and give security
○ John Locke: state to maintain peace and order
■ Preserve people’s natural rights to life, liberty and property
○ Jean Jacques Rousseau: state as completely and directly democratic
■ Popular participation = participatory democracy

● INSTINCTIVE THEORY
○ State was created due to natural inclination of men
■ Towards political association
● For self-preservation and security
 ● Economic Theory
○ State originated from the needs (economic) of men
■ Social system of services

State distinguished from nation

● State = a political concept
○ May consist of one or more nations or people
● Nation = ethnic concept; sociological collectivity of individuals
○ Common social or racial origin, language, customs, traditions
○ Strictly synonymous with “people”
○ E.g. Arab nation
● In common usage, the two terms are often used synonymously
○ The Constitution uses them interchangeably.

State distinguished from government

● The government is only the agency
○ State cannot exist without a government
○ Possible to have a government without a state
■ Various governments at different periods of Philippine history
● No Philippine state = under foreign domination
● A government may change
○ State and its elements remain the same