Concepts of State and Government

STATE: A community of persons more of 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 THE STATE

1. People – This refers to the mass of population living within the state.
2. Territory – It includes not only the land over which the jurisdiction of the state extends, but also
the rivers and lakes therein, a certain of the sea which abuts upon its coasts and the air space
above it.
The Philippine territory has a total land are of 115,707 square miles or 299,651 square
kilometers.
3. Government - It refers to the agency through which the will of the state is formulated, express
and carried out.
4. Sovereignty - 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.
a. Internal – the power of the state to rule within its territory.
b. External – the freedom of the state to carry out its activities without subjection to or
control by other states. Otherwise known as independence.

Theories on the Origin of States

1. Divine right theory – It holds that the state is of divine creation and the ruler is ordained bu God
to govern the people. (Reference is Moses on the Bible)
2. Necessity or force theory – It maintains that the state must have been created through force, by
some great warriors who imposed their will upon the weak.
3. Paternalistic theory – It attributes the origin of the state to the expansion of the family which
remained under the authority of the father or mother.
4. Social Contract Theory – the early state 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.

STATE Versus NATION

1. State is a political concept while nation is an ethnical 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.
2. A state is not subject to external control while a nation may or may not be independent of
external control.
3. A single state may consist of one or more nations or people and conversely, a single nation may
be made up of several states. Example of the first one is the United States, whereas the UAE is
an example of a single nation with several states.
STATE and the Government
The government is the only agency to which the state expresses its will. A state cannot exist without a
government but it is possible to have a government without a state. The government may change, its
form may vary but the state as long as the essential elements are present remains the same.

Purpose and Necessity of Government

1. Government exists and should continue to exist for the benefits of the people governed.
2. Government exists to do these things which by their very nature it is better equipped to
administer for the public welfare than private individual or group of individuals.

Forms of Government
1. As to the number of persons exercising sovereign powers
a. Monarchy

1. Absolute Monarchy – one in which the ruler rules by divine right.

2. Limited Monarchy - one in which the ruler rules in accordance with the constitution.

b. Aristocracy – political power is exercised by a few privileged class

c. Democracy – political power is exercised by a majority of the people.
1. Direct or Pure Democracy – the will of the state is formulated or expressed directly
and immediately through the people in a mass meeting or primary assembly rather
than through the medium of delegates or representatives chosen by the act of
them.
2. Indirect, representative or republican democracy – 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 the extent of powers exercised by the central of national government

a. Unitary government – one in which the control of the national or local affairs is exercised by
the central or national government.
b. Federal Government – one in which the power of the government is divided into two organs;
one for the national affairs and the other for the local affairs. Each organ being supreme on its
own sphere. Example is the United States.

3. As to the relationship between the executive and the legislative government.

a. Parliamentary Government – the state confers upon the legislature the power to tenure of
office of the real executive.

b. Presidential Government – 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 constitutions as executive independence and prerogative.