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body of inhabitants render habitual obedience.”-James
WEEK 2: THE STATE
A. DEFINITION OF STATE
The modern term “state” is derived from the word “status”. It was
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) who first used the term “state”
in his writings. His significant work is titled as “Prince”.
The state is the most universal and most powerful of all
institutions. The state is a natural institution.
A state is 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 habitual obedience, and enjoying freedom from external
control.
State has been also been defined variously by political thinkers.
Some of the definitions are the following:
 “State is a numerous assemblage of human beings,
generally occupying a certain territory among whom the
will of the majority or of an ascertainable class of
persons is by the strength of such a majority made to
prevail against any of their members who oppose it.” -
Alisha Holland, Harvard University Professor
 “State is a particular portion of mankind viewed as an
organized unit.” -John William Burgess, (1844–1931)
American political theorist, historian, and university
dean.
 “State is a people organized for law within a definite
territory.” -Former US Pres. Woodrow Wilson (1913-
1921)
 “State is a territorial society divided into government
and subjects claiming within its allotted physical area a
supremacy over all other institutions.” -Prof. Harold
Joseph Laski (1893-1950) British political scientist,
educator and Labor leader.
 “State is a union of families and villages having for its
end a perfect and self-sufficing life by which we mean a
happy and honorable life.” -Aristotle (384-322 BC)
Greek philosopher and polymath.
 “The marks of an independent state are that the
community constituting it is permanently established
for a political end, that it possesses a defined territory
and that it is independent of external control.” – Arnold
Bennett Hall (1881–1936) American educator, political
scientist.
 “The state as a concept of political science and public
law, is a community of persons more or less numerous,
permanently occupying a definite portion of territory,
independent, or nearly so, of external control
possessing an organized government to which the great
Wilford Garner (1871-1938) American professor of
Political Science.
 “The state is an association which, acting through law as
promulgated by a government endowed to this end
with coercive power, maintains within a community
territorially demarcated the universal external
conditions of social order.”- Robert M. Maclver,
Scottish-American sociologist, a humanist, and political
scientist (1882-1970)
 According to William F. Ogburn, an American
sociologist, a state “is an organization which rules by
means of a supreme government over a definite
territory.”
 According to Max Weber, a German sociologist,
historian, jurist, and political economist (1864-1920),
“The state is an association that claims the monopoly of
the legitimate use of violence.”
 According to Anderson and Parker, “A state is that
agency in a society that is authorized to exercise
coercive control within a given territory.”
From the foregoing definitions, we can deduce that the
State has four essential elements: a) People, b) Government, c)
Territory, and d) Sovereignty.
B. ELEMENTS OF THE STATE
1. People/Population
People refers to the mass of population living within the
state. “People” answers the question, “who governs whom?”
According to Plato, there is no specific number
requirement; “…the state shall neither be too small nor yet one
that seems great but has no unity.” Aristotle, on the other hand,
says “the number should be neither too large nor too small; It
should be large enough to be self-sufficing and small enough to
be well governed.”
2. Territory
Territory is the demarcated area that rightly belongs to
the population. “Territory” answers the question, “where?” It is a
definite portion of the surface of the earth which is the subject of
the jurisdiction and sovereign rights of a state in accordance with
the international law.
There can be no state without a fixed territory. People
need territory to live and organize themselves socially and
politically. Territory refers to the terrestrial (land), fluvial/maritime
(water), and aerial (air-space) domains. The territorial domains
are: a. terrestrial (land) b. fluvial (water) which includes maritime
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and c. aerial (air). It consists the land within its boundaries, the air
space above the land, the inland waters and all the natural
resources therein, and the sea beyond the state’s coastlines,
including its seabed and subsoil. In the case of archipelagic
states this territorial sea stretches to 12 miles (19kms) from the
coastlines to the open sea.
As in the case of the population, there is no definite size
with regard to the extent of area of the state to be fixed. There
are large and small states. However, territory should be
permanent and large enough to be self-sufficing. Vatican is the
smallest with a total land area of 0.44 km2; Russia is the largest
with 17,098,242 km2
3. Government
There can be no state without government. Government
is the agency to which the will of the state is formulated,
expressed, and carried out. It is an institution or aggregate of
institutions by which an independent society makes and carries
out those rules of action necessary to enable men to live in a
social state, or that which are imposed upon the people by those
who possess the power or authority of prescribing them.
4. Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the supreme power of the state to
command and enforce obedience its will from the people within
its jurisdiction, and corollarily, to have freedom from foreign
control.
The word “sovereignty” means supreme and final legal
authority above and beyond which no legal power exists.
Sovereignty has two aspects: 1) Internal sovereignty which means
that the State is supreme over all its citizens, and associations; 2)
External sovereignty which means that the state is independent
and free from foreign or outside control.
C. THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN OF THE STATE
There are several theories that attempt to explain the
origin of the state, but no single theory offers an adequate
explanation. These theories have been formed and developed as
a result of the political thought and philosophy in the ancient
time until the Enlightenment period in Europe.
1. Divine Right Theory
The Divine Right Theory 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.
The rulers of the past advocated the political dominance
of authority and power through their own ordained mandate
that they represented the state as on the basis of the divine right
(as God created the state). It was in this nature that the divine
rights of kings have the absolute power and influence over their
subjects.
This is the oldest theory concerned in the origin of state.
According to this theory, state is established and governed by
God himself by agent or vice regent or vicar of God. The chief
exponent of this theory in early times were the Jews and
supporters were the early church fathers.
2. Necessity or Force Theory
Necessity or force theory maintains that the state must
have been created as a product of the existence of the strong
and the weak in society, and as a result of their struggle against
each other wherein those who are strong are able to dominate
and impose their will upon the weak. The creation of the state
through the constant war and invasion of the great warriors in
the ancient time dominated the weak and later on formed a state.
According to this theory, state is the result of the
superior physical force and subjugation of the weaker section by
the stronger. Physical strength was able to overcome fellow men
and to exercise authority over them.
3. Natural or Instinctive Theory
The Natural or Instinctive Theory holds that the state is
founded out of man’s natural instinct for association. The social
urge of the human being to be within a group of people in the
community as in sociology describes that “man is a social being.”
The social group provides the political development to stay and
work together with common goal in the community then later on
transforms into a state.
4. Patriarchal Theory
The Patriarchal theory 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.
According to MacIver, “Kinship creates society and
society at length creates the states.”
In the process of development of kinship patriarchal
and matriarchal both societies were experienced and such
societies contributed in the origin of the state theory through
their authority, military and political and religious privileges and
powers.
5. Social Contract Theory
Social contract theory asserts that the early states must
have been formed by deliberate and voluntary compact among
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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.
This is the right of the people to have the deliberate
and voluntary contract on the right to overthrow the kings and
rulers against corrupt governance to organize a new government
with common interest for all the people. Philosophers like
Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau are the
main supporters of this theory.
6. Historical and Evolutionary Theory
The Historical or Evolutionary theory explains that “the
state is the product of growth, a slow and steady evolution
extending over a long period of time and ultimately shaping
itself into the complex structure of a modern state.” This theory is
more scientific.
The state is neither the handiwork of God, nor the result
of superior physical force, nor the creation of evolution or
convention, nor a mere expansion of the family. The state is not a
mere artificial mechanical creation but an institution of natural
growth or historical evolution says professor Garner.
There were a number of factors which helped the
evolution of the state. They were kinship, religion, war, migration
economic activities and political consciousness.
a. Kinship- is the most important and was based upon
blood relationship and kinship was the first strongest
bond of unity. Family constituted the first link in the
process of the evolution of the state with the
expansion of the family arose new families and the
multiplication of families led to the formation of clans
and tribes. Kinship was the only factor which bound
the people together.
According to Professor Mac Iver, the magic of names
'reinforced the sense of kinship, as the course of generations
enlarged the group. The blood bond of sonship changed
imperceptibly into the social bond of the wider brotherhood. The
authority of the father passes into the power of the chief once
more under the aegis of kinship new forms arise which transcend
it. Kinship creates society and society at length creates the state'.
b. Religion- provided the bond of unity in early society. It
also affected all walks of life. The worship of a common
ancestor and common goods created a sense of social
solidarity. There was fear in the hearts of men as far as
religion was concerned. Even today we see religious
practices, affairs and faith in uniting people. In the
early days a number of races are united by religion and
unity was essential for the creation of state.
c. Force- also played an important part in the evolution
of the state. It was the use of physical force that was
responsible for the growth of kingdoms and empires.
d. Property and Defense- played a vital role in the
evolution of state in ancient times particularly among
the people who were nomads and vagabonds and
tribes. Prof. Laski has referred to the necessity of
acquiring property by the members of society and
protecting the property acquired with reference to the
population mentioned above. This led to making
adjustments in the social system and relationship
between the members of different groups. The need to
protect property ultimately compelled the ancient
people to establish the state.
e. Political consciousness- arising from the fundamental
needs of life for protection and order. When the
people settle down on a definite territory in pursuit of
their, subsistence and a desire to secure it from
encroachment by others. The need for regulating
things and persons is felt imminently and this is the
essence of political consciousness.
In conclusion, it is apparent that many factors
helped the growth of the state. No single factor alone
was responsible for its origin. Sometimes all and
sometimes many of them help the process by which
uncivilized society was transformed into a state. Of all
the theories which seek to explain the origin of the
states, the evolutionary theory is the most satisfactory. It
should be noted that no theory pin-points the time at
which the state originated as a consequence of many
factors working in union at different times.
D. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STATE AND NATION
By definition, State is a community of persons
occupying a definite territory, have government of their own, and
enjoying freedom from external control, while a nation A is
society of inhabitants of a specific geographic region united and
bound together by a common racial ancestry, the same language
and culture, historical past, laws and a shared interests and
sentiments over the passing of many years.
State Distinguished from Nation. Nation should not be confused
with state for they are not the same.
a. The state is a political concept, while nation is an
ethnic or racial concept.
b. A state is not subject to external control while a nation
may or may not be independent of external control.
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c. A state cannot become a state without a nation or
nations that consists its people. On the other hand, a
nation is a nation whether or not a state exists.
d. A single state may consist of one or more nations or
peoples and conversely, a single nation may be made
up of different states. The United States is a melting
pot of several nationalities. On the other hand, the
Arab Nation is divided politically into several foreign
states. The Philippines is a state composed of one
nation.

E. INHERENT POWERS OF THE STATE

1. Police power is the power of government to enforce

obedience from the people in the promotion of public
health, morals, or safety, and the general well-being of
the community. It is the inherent power of government
to enact and enforce laws for the promotion of general
welfare.

2. Power of Eminent Domain is the power possessed by

the state over all property within the state, specifically
its power to appropriate property for a public purpose.
This is the power of the state to take private property
for public use with just compensation.

3. Power of Taxation is the inherent power of the

sovereign, exercised through the legislature, to impose
burdens upon subjects and objects within its jurisdiction
for the purpose of raising revenues to carry out the
legitimate objects of the government.

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