is . FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS: STATE, GOVERNMENT, NATION AND NATIONALITY State and Government are the main objects of study in Political Science. All political studies revolve around State and Government. In fact, in its traditional way, Politics continues to be identified as Political Science and defined as “the science of state and government.” One scholar has observed that State is as old as History and Politics is as old as the State. The students of Political Science have to understand the meaning of State, Government and Society as well as the difference between these three. Each human being is born in a society and he lives his life as a citizen of a State. He is governed by the government of the state. He inherits, by birth, the citizenship of a State. He lives under the rule of the government and carries out its commands laws, policies, orders, rules, regulations and decrees. Hence, it is essential for each one of us to study state and understand the difference between State, Government Society and Association. ~-WHAT IS STATE? State is the sovereign political institution of the people living is an organised society. Each.one of us lives under the supreme power of the State, enjoys rights and freedoms and Performs several duties as a citizen of the State. : In ancient Greek the word ‘Polis’ was used for identifying the small city-states. It was because of this fact that Aristotle gave the title ‘Politics’ to his book which discussed the origin, nature and functions of the Greek city-states (Polis). However, later on, the term Scanned with CamScanner'UNDAMENTAL ¢, . ONE, i II political unit gy State? ca ae big or smal ae — AME to be “Universally used for describing every iy © Power over its people, The wo d ‘Status’ which Latin wor ans Td ‘State ‘ived from the eae between g : Particular g, ‘. ta ient times, no difference w: tate a Society. 4! Position. Since in ancient times, no g the status of the persons as «1° 8 «ety, the term State came to be used for describing Tadually ltizg oe ts litical institution/oy, hic. i however, the term State came to be used for Se a ee aig “hich exercised Supreme power (Sovereignty) over the people In simple yy, nity of persons, rds, we can define State as a large community definite tery : ment. ae and exercising sovereign power through its govern Soi Popular Definitions of State ' its end *Ssociation of families and villages having for its end a ADDY ang 'S-a self-sufficient existence.” The State isa Politically OCCU ying State is «ay Prosperous livin ~Aristoy, organised people of 4 definite teritory.”® ~Blunisey, i ciety divided into government and subjects, claiming Within Supremacy over all other institutions.” “State is a territorial so its allotted physical area, a “The State exists where a number of people living on a definite territory are under a Severnment, which in internal matters is the organ for expressin; Sovereignty and j matters is independent of other governments,” Lash Unifieg 'S their ~Gilchrisy sy Permanently of external contro} inhabitants render “The State is a com, Sccupying a definite portion of territory, and Possessing an organised government habitual obedience.” munity of persons, more or less numerous. independent or nearly so, to which the great body of ~Garner We can conclude by saying that State is a Politically organised community of which is occupying a definite Portion of territory and is exercising sovereign powe its government over all the persons and places falling in its territory. It is not external control and is described as: Sovereign Independent Politically Organised C, of People. f people, Tr through under any ‘ommunity State is a political instituti Prime responsibility is to provi People have to continuously and ‘on/organisation as well as a territorial ide security, Peace, order and govern, habitually obey Sovereign entity. Its lance to its people. The he laws and of the State, uments OF STATE ith State stands identified with its four essential elements, The Presence of all the four, without exception, constitutes a State. These are: 1. Population 2. Territory Scanned with CamScannerFUNDAMENTAL GONGHPT# 129 }, Government A, Soverelnty ed the State, Any community of people whieh possesses all these elements is call is Populi atten 3 : {ite isa cominunity of persons, Iisa yyman politi i there can be no State, Population em be more or less but it has to be ther with very small populations Tike Switzerland, Canada and others, and, thefe are States like a an! (ulin and some others, with very larger popuation a Aitution, Without a population There are States {fhe people of w State ate the citizens of the State, ‘They enjoy rights and freedom as Zens as Well.as pactor. duties towards the State) When eiti ¢ are Jiving, ens as well as aliens, re duty bound to obey the laws and policies of the - Stac, The State exercises supreme authority over them through its government. \In contemporary times, the government of the state is. organised and constituted by the people ‘and is responsible and accountable to them, Such a government is identified as a democratic government. in the territory of the State, they are called aliens“All the persons, who are living in the territory of the State no definite limit for the numberof the population essential for a State. However, it is recognised that the population should be neither disproportionately large nor very small. It has to be within a reasonable limit. It should be determined on the basis of the size of the territory of the State, the available re the standard of living expected and needs of defence, production of goods and supplies. India has a very large and fast growing population and there is every need to check the population explosion, It is essential for enhancing the ability of India to register a sustainable high level of development. Internal SOVEREIGNTY < External esource: ‘Aaitly largo group of people ~ ‘ACommunity of peoplo PEOPLE Relations. GOVERNMENT: A definito and demarcated ‘TERRITORY portion of the earth Tho political organisation or agency which acts as STATE tho agont of the State and ‘oprosonts its pooplo Population Sovereignty Territory Government Scanned with CamScannerkao FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS 2.Tertitory : Territory is the second essential element of State. Gtateis a terrtorial-unit-or- entity Definite territory is its essential component, A State cannot exist in-the.air-or at $€9. It is essentially a territorial State, The size of the territory of a State can be big of anal, nevertheless it has to be a definite and well-marked portion of territory. States like ey Canada, U.S.A., India, China, Brazil and some others are large sized states, whereas Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Switzerland, Togo, Brunei and several others are States with small territories. % “the whole testo of the st is under the sovereignty i. the supreme power ofthe Siste-\AII persons, organisations associations, institutions and places located within it territory are under the sovereign jurisdiction of the State)The State can regulate al these in all respects... Further, it must be noted that the territory of the state includes not only the land but also, rivers, lakes canals inland seas if any, a portion of coastal sea territorial waters or marintime belt, continental shelf, mountains, hills and all other land features alongwith air space above the territory:)The territory of the state can also include some islands located in the sea. For example Afidaman - Nicobar and New Moor islands are parts of India. State exercises sovereignty over all parts of its territory. Ships of the State are its floating parts and areo planes are its flying parts. Even a States can lease out its territory to another State e.g. India has give on lease her Teen Bigha corridor to Bangladesh, 4 ¥ ¥ 4+ Government : * Government is the political organisation or machinery or agency or magistracy of State through which the laws of the State are made, implemented, enforced and adjudicated) It is the third essential element of the State. The state exercises its sovereign power throu, /Dits government. This sometimes Greates the impression that there is no difference between the State and Government. Howeyer it must be clearly noted that government is just one element of the State. It is the agent or the working agency of the State. Sovereignty belongs to the State, the government uses it on behalf of the State. : yy 2 Each government has three organs. (1) Legislature ~ which formulates the will of State i.e. performs rule-making functions ; (2) Executive - which enforces and implements the laws of the State ie, performs the rule-application functions; and (3) Judiciary — which applies the laws to specific cases and settles the disputes ic. performs tule-adjudication functions. Goyernment as a'whole is the instrument through which the sovereign power Of the State gets operationalised. . In ancient times the King used to perform all the functions of the government and all powers of governance stood centralised in his hands. Gradually, however, the Powers of Kin, got decentralised and these come to be exercised by three organs — the assembly of ie epresentatives of the people or of all the classes of the people ; the executive = mo Scanned with CamScannert FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS. 131 ministers who initially owed allegiance to the King but who later on came to be responsible representatives of the people ; and the judiciary — the body of judges, initially the royal judges owing loyalty to the King but later independent judges acting as the protectors of rights and freedoms of the people. Consequently, the government came to be characterised by a tripartite division : Three organs of government : Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. rs Government The three organs of the Government Legistature-Executive-Judiciary ormulates e implements.and enforces the Jaws, and the Jitliciary adjudicates-and.settles disputes by. interpreting. and applying laws.:It is also a universally accepted rule that each of the three organs of the government, carries out its assigned functions and responsibilities. Independence. of Judiciary is also a settled rule. The -96 relationship between. Legislature and Executive is defined by law and it corresponds to the adopted form,of government.dn.the Parliamentary form of government like the one which is»}- working in India and Britain, the legislature and executive are closely related and the latter is collectively responsible bef rmer.{in the Presidential ntial form, as’is in operation in the Ci U.S.A, the legislature and two executive are independent and separate organs each with a_ stable and fixed tenure,)The executive is not responsible to the legislature. It is directly ¥ responsible to the people. Government is an essential element of State. However it keeps an, changing after regular intervals. 9 Further, Government can be of several different forms-Monarchy, or Aristocracy or Dictatorship or Democracy in its organisation and working. In the government can be either Parliaineritary or Presidential or both, and Unitary and Federal or mixtire of the two. In contemporary times every civilised State has a democratic government. i 4. Sovereignty 3 x] wereignty is the most exclusive element of State. It stands accepted as the most essential element because. the.State.alone possesses sovereignty, Bome institutions existing in a state Can have the first three elements but not sovereignty. State has the exclusive title and Prerogative to exercise sovereignty over its people and territory. In fact, an Laski opines, a “ait Scanned with CamScanner_ LLL a2 FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS 3 ; ; spects of the life of the Sovereignty provides the basis on which the State regulates all aspects of the fife people wii live or its territory. Cae: ; mensions + Internal # 4Sovercignty means supreme power of the Stale. It has two dimensions + Internal Sovereignty and External Sovereignty. State cr ate th (i) Internal Sovereignty : 11 means the povierof the State.1o. eee wea aa, activities of all the people, groups and institutions which are at work. wi ora ‘These always act in accordance with the laws of the State. The State can punish these for every violation of any of its law. ~ (ii) External Sovereigny. it means complete independence of the State from sare contol. I also means the equal freedom of the State to participate in.the activities o Germmunity of nations and to have its own foreign policy. ft stands forthe right of each state to have an independent foreign policy designed to secure the goals of its national interests in relations with other states.(All this makes it essential to define external sovereignty of the State as sovereign equality.with every other state and the equal freedom of action as a member of the international community) # | Each State voluntarily accepts rules of international law. These cannot be forced upon any State, India is free to sign or not to sign NPT, CTBT and MTCR. No state can force her todo 0) In ice, the government of the State exercises the sovereign powers on behalf of the State. Gove ereignty belongs to the State, but it is exercised by_the government) In fact, { Sovereignty of the State is the basis of all governmental authority, * (No State can really become a State without sovereignty. India became a State in 1947 when it became independent. It was after her independence that India got the power to ‘ercise sovereignty, internally as well as extemally. Sovereignty permanently, and absolutely belongs to the State. End of sovereignty means end of the State. sovereignty is always identified as the hallmark of the State) ___ Thus, these are the four essential elem: State only when it has all these elements, exclusively That is why ents/features of the state, A state comes to bea However, Besides these four essential elements, Recognition of state by other states, {international obligations are also essential elements of a Stat. some scholars like P] imore hold that Permanence and Ability of the state to carry out Scanned with CamScanner