POLITICAL SCIENCE

MARK REYNER LAYUG - HUMSS B

What is Political Science?
• It is the study of state and government.
• Politics from “polis” - city; sovereign state
• Science from “scire” - to know; study
• It is the understanding of the state, princoples
and ideas underlying its organization and
activities.
• The study of a body politic, the association of
people into a political community.
• It studies relations of men and groups, men and
groups to the state, and state to other state.
What is the scope of Political Science?
• Political Theory - entire body of doctrines
relating to origin, form, behaviors, and purposes
of a state.

• Public Law - covers constitutional law,

administrative law, and international law.

• Public Administration - methods and techniques used

in actual management of state affairs by the 3
branches of government.
 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 its own to which
the great body of inhabitants renders obedience, and
enjoying freedom from external control.
 Elements of the State

1) People - mass of population living within the state.

2) Territory - fixed portion of the surface of the earth

inhabited by the people of the state.

3) Government - agency through which the will of the

state is formulated, expressed and carried out.

4) Sovereignty - the supreme power of the state to

command and enforce obedience.
 Origin of the State

1. Divine Right Theory - holds that the state is

divine creation and the ruler is ordained by God
to govern the people.
2. Necessity or Force Theory - maintains that states
must have been created through force.
3. Paternalistic Theory - attributes the origin of
states to the enlargement of the family.
4. Social Contract Theory - asserts that the eraly
states must have been formed by deliberate and
voluntary compact among people to form a
government of their own.
 Forms of Government

1. As to the number of the persons exercising

sovereign power:
a. Monarchy - the supreme and final authority is in the
hands of a single person. It is futher classified
into: absolute monarchy and limited monarchy.
b. Aristocracy - the political power is exercised by the
few priviledged class.
c. Democracy - the political poer is exercised by the
majority of people. It is futher classified into two:
direct or pure democracy and indirect or
representative democracy.
2. As to the nature of tenure of the officials

a. Hereditary - power and authority is passes on to

one who is a relative by consanguinity.

b. Elective or Popular - leader is chisen by an

electoral process.
3. As to extent of powers exercised by the central
or national government
a. Unitary Government - the control of national and
local affairs is exercised by the central or
national government.

b. Federal Government - the powers of government are

divided between two sets of organs, one for
national affairs and the other for local affairs
4. As to the relationship between the executive and
the legislative branches of government

a. Parliamentary - the state confers upon the

legislature the power to terminate the tenure of
office of the real executive.

b. Presidential - the state makes the executive

constitually independent of the legistative.