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• Concept of State and Government

State
• 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.
Elements of State
• People. – This refers to the inhabitants living within the 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. Ideally, it should be neither too small nor too large: small enough
to be well-governed and large enough to be self-sufficing.
• Territory. – It includes not only the fixed portion of land over which the jurisdiction of the state
extends (territorial domain), but also the rivers and lakes therein, a certain area of the sea which
abuts upon its coasts (fluvial and maritime domain), and the air space above the land and the waters.
(Aerial domain). Thus the domain of the state may be described as terrestrial, fluvial, maritime, and
aerial.
• Government. – It refers to the agency through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed and
carried out. The word is sometimes used to refer to the person or aggregate of those persons in whose
hands are placed for the time being the function of political control. This “body of men” is usually
spoken of as “administration”. The ordinary citizens of a country are a part of the state., but are not
part of the government;
• Sovereignty. – The term may be defined as the supreme power of the state to command and enforce
obedience to its will from people within its jurisdiction and corollarily, to have freedom from foreign
control. It has, therefore, two manifestations:
(a) Internal or the power of the state to rule within its territory; and
(b) External or the freedom of the state to carry out its activities without subjection to or control by other
states. External sovereignty is often referred to as independence.
Origin of State
• Divine right theory. – It holds that the state is of divine creation and the ruler is ordained by God to
govern the people. Reference has been made by advocates of this theory to the laws which Moses
received at Mount Sinai;
• Necessity or force theory. – It maintains that states must have been created through force, by some
great warriors who imposed their will upon the weak;
• Paternalistic theory. – It attributes the origin of states to the enlargement of the family which
remained under the authority of the father or mother. By natural stages, the family grew into a clan,
then developed into a tribe which broadened into a nation, and the nation became a state; and
• Social contract theory. – It asserts that the early states must have been formed by deliberate and
voluntary compact among the people to form a society and organize government for their common
good. This theory justifies the right of the people to revolt against a bad ruler.
States distinguished from nation
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• 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, and who believe that they are one and distinct from others. The term is more strictly
synonymous with “people”;
• A state is not subject to external control while nation may or may not be independent of external
control; and
• A single state may consist of one or more nations or peoples and conversely, a single nation may be
made up of several states. The United States is a melting pot of several nationalities. On the other
hand, the Arab nation is divided politically into several sovereign states. Among them are: Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and others. The Philippines is a state composed of one nation.
• State distinguished from government
In common speech, they are usually regarded as identical. As ordinarily, the acts of the
government (within the limits of the delegation of powers) are the acts of the state, the former is meant when
the latter is mentioned, and vice versa.
The government is only the agency through which the states articulate its will. The former is
the agent, the latter is the principal. A state cannot exist without a government, but it is possible to have a
government without a state. Thus, we had various governments at different periods of our history, from pre-
Spanish times to the present. There was no Philippine state during those periods when we were under
foreign domination.
A government may change, its form may change, but the state, as long as its elements are
present, remains the same.
• Purpose and necessity of government.
(1) Advancement of the public welfare. – Government exists and should continue to exist
for the benefit of the people governed. It is necessary for (a) the protection of society and its members, the
security of persons and property, the administration of justice, the preservation of the state from external
danger, dealings of the state with foreign powers (constituent functions) and (b) the advancement of the
physical, economic, social, and cultural well0being of the people. (ministrant functions)
(2) Consequence of absence. – Government exists to do these things which by their very
nature, it is better equipped to administer for the public welfare than any private individual or group of
individuals. It is obvious that without an organized structure of government, anarchy and disorder, and a
general feeling of fear and insecurity will prevail in society, progress and development will not be possible,
and values taken for granted in a free modern society such as truth, freedom, justice, equality, rule of law,
and human dignity can never be enjoyed.
• Forms of government
(1) As to number of persons exercising sovereign powers:
(a) Monarchy or one in which the supreme and final authority is in the hands of a single
person without regard to the source of his election of the nature or duration of his tenure. Monarchies
are further classified into:
1) Absolute monarchy or one in which the ruler rules by divine right; and
2) Limited monarchy or one in which the ruler rules in accordance with a constitution;
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(b) Aristocracy or one in which political power is exercised by a few privileged class
which is known as an aristocracy or oligarchy; and
(c) Democracy or one in which political power is exercised by a majority of the people.
Democratic governments are further classified into:
1) Direct or pure democracy or one in which the will of the state is formulated or expressed directly and
immediately through the people in a mass meeting or primary assembly rather through the medium of
delegates or representatives chosen to act for them; and
2) Indirect, representative, or republican democracy or one in which the will of the state is formulated
and expressed through the agency of a relatively small and select body of persons chosen by the people to
act as their representatives.
(2) As to extent of powers exercised by the central or national government:
(a) Unitary government or one in which the control of national and local affairs is exercised by the
central or national government; and
(b) Federal government or one in which the powers of government are divided between two sets of
organs, one for national affairs and the other local affairs, each organ being supreme within its own sphere.
The United States is a federal government.
(3) As to relationship between the executive and the legislative branches of the
government:
(a) Parliamentary government or one in which the state confers upon the legislature the power to
terminate the tenure of office of the real executive. Under this system, the Cabinet or ministry is
immediately and legally responsible to the legislature and immediately or politically responsible to the
electorate, while the titular or nominal executive – the Chief of State – occupies a position of
irresponsibility; and
(b) Presidential government or in one in which the state makes the executive constitutionally
independent of the legislature as regards his tenure and to a large extent as regards his policies and acts, and
furnishes him with sufficient powers to prevent the legislature from trenching upon the sphere marked out
by the constitution as executive independence and prerogative.
• Concept of Constitution
• Meaning of Constitution
Body of rules and principles in accordance with which the powers of sovereignty are regularly
exercised.
• Constitution of the Philippines
Written instrument by which the fundamental powers of the government are established, limited and
defined and by which these powers are distributed among the several departments or branches for their safe
and useful exercise for the benefit of the people.
• Constitutional Law
Branch of public law which treats of constitutions, their nature, formation, amendment, and
interpretation.
• Kinds of Constitution
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1. As to their origin and history:

a. Conventional or enacted-one which is enacted by a constituent assembly or granted by a monarch to
his subjects
b. Cumulative or evolved-one which is the product of growth or a long period of development
originating in customs, traditions, judicial decisions, etc., rather than from a deliberate and formal
enactment.
2. As to their form:
a. Written-one which has been given definite written form at a particular time, usually by a specially
constituted authority called a “constitutional convention”; and
b. Unwritten-entirely the product of political evolution, consisting largely of a mass of customs, usages
and judicial decisions together with a smaller body of statutory enactments of a fundamental
character usually bearing different dates.
3. As to manner of amending them:
a. Rigid or inelastic-one regarded as a document of special sanctity which cannot be amended or altered
except by some special machinery more cumbrous than ordinary legislative process; and
b. Flexible and elastic-one which possesses no higher legal authority than ordinary laws and which may
be altered in the same way as other laws.
The Philippine Constitution may be classified as conventional or enacted, written, and rigid or
inelastic. It was drafted by an appointive body called “Constitutional Commission.”
• Requisites of a good written constitution
(1) As to form, a good constitution should be:
(a) Brief-because if constitution is too detailed, it would lose the advantage of a fundamental law which
in a few provisions outlines the structure of the government of the whole state and the rights of the
citizens.
(b) Broad-because a statement of the powers and functions of government, and of the relations between
the governing body and the governed, requires that it be as comprehensive as possible; and
(c) Definite-because otherwise the application of its provisions to concrete situations may prove unduly
difficult if not impossible. Any vagueness which may lead to opposing interpretations of essential
features may cause incalculable harm.
(2) As to contents:
(a) Constitution of government-dealing with framework of government and its powers, and defining the
electorate.
(b) Constitution of liberty-settling forth of fundamental rights of the people and imposing certain
limitations on the powers of the government as a means of securing the enjoyment of these rights.
(c) Constitution of sovereignty-pointing out the mode or procedure for amending or revising the
constitution.
• Constitution distinguished from statute.
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(1) A constitution is a legislation direct from the people while a statute is a legislation from the people’s
representatives;
(2) A constitution merely states the general framework of the law and the government, while a statute
provides the details of the subject of which it treats;
(3) A constitution is intended not merely to meet existing conditions but to govern the future, while a
statute is intended primarily to meet existing conditions only; and
(4) A constitution is the supreme or fundamental law of the state to which statutes and all other laws
must conform.

Preamble
We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and

humane society and establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the

common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings

of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality,

and peace, do ordain and promulgate this Constitution.