LESSON 1: CONCEPT OF STATE AND 4.

Sovereignty
○ supreme power of the state to command and enforce obedience to its will from people within its
GOVENMENT jurisdiction, and to have freedom from foreign control.
Saturday, June 12, 2021 05:12 PM Manifestations of Sovereignty
Political Science 1. Internal or the power of the state to rule within its territory;
• systematic study of the state and government. 2. External or the freedom of the state to carry out its activities without subjection or control by
• Political: Greek; polis, meaning "a city", of what today would be equivalent of sovereign other states. External sovereignty is often referred to as independence.
state.
• Science: Latin; scire, “to know”. ► Legal sovereignty is the possession of unlimited power to make laws. It is the authority by which
law has the power to issue commands.
Scope of Political Science: ► Political sovereignty is the sum total of all the influences in a state which lie behind the law. It is
1. Political theory roughly defined as the power of the people.
2. Public Law ► Imperium is the right of the State to pass or enact its own laws and employ force to secure
3. Public Administration obedience thereto, maintain peace and order within its territorial limits, defend the State against
foreign invasion, and do any other act of government over its people and territory.
Political Theory ► Dominium refers to the independent proprietary right of possession, use, conservation, disposition
• refers to the entire body of doctrines relating to the origin, form, behaviour, and purposes or sale, and control by the State over its territorial lands.
of the state are dealt with the study of political theory.
Characteristics of Sovereignty
Public Law 1. Permanence — means it exist in the same form forever or for a very long time.
2. Exclusivity — means it is limited to a group of people.
• the (a) organization of governments, (b) the limitations upon government authority, (c) the
3. Comprehensiveness — means including everything, so as to be complete comprehensive
powers and duties of governmental offices and officers, and (d) the obligations of one
state to another are handled in the study of public law. knowledge of the subject.
4. Absoluteness — means possessing unlimited power: having total power and authority.
5. Individuality — means the state or condition of being separate from others.
Private Laws
6. Inalienability — means it is impossible to take away or not able to be transferred or taken
• govern the relations among individuals
away, e.g. because of being protected by law.
• so specialized that separate courses offered in each of its subdivisions, namely: 7. Imprescriptibility — means not to be taken away or impossible to remove or violate the
○ (a) constitutional law, people's imprescriptible rights
○ (b) administrative law, 5. Recognition
○ (c) international Law. • To recognize a community as a State is to declare that it fulfills the conditions of statehood as
required by international law.
Public Administration ▪ If these conditions are present, existing States are under the duty to grant recognition.
• attention is focused upon methods and techniques used in the actual management of the • can be either expressed or implied and is usually retroactive in its effects.
state affairs by executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. • does not necessarily signify a desire to establish or maintain diplomatic relations. State recognition
signifies the decision of a sovereign state to treat another entity as also being a sovereign state
today, legislative bodies have been forced to delegate greater discretion to executive
officers responsible for the conduct of government policies and powers. Thus we find
many administrative agencies exercising quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial powers. Individual liberty
• No freedom is absolute in a democratic world; subject to the filipino people and the governing body
Interrelationship of Political Science with other branches of learning: State power
1. History 5. Psychology
○ “History is past politics and politics is ○ promotes studies of the mental and Three inherent powers of the state (Necessary, indispensable)
present history.” emotional processes motivating the • Police power
○ Political Scientist adopts a “historical political behavior of individuals and ○ Power of promoting the general welfare by restraining and regulating the use and liberty and
approach and employs knowledge of groups. property
the past when he seeks to interpret ○ Particular topics under this are: public • Eminent domain
present and probable developments in opinion, pressure groups, and ○ Enables the state to acquire private property upon payment of just compensation for some
political phenomena. propaganda. intended public use
2. Economics 6. Philosophy ▪ Price is determined by BIR and Municipal's accessors office
○ Refers to the study of production, ○ The concepts and doctrines of Plato, • Taxation
distribution, and conservation, and Aristotle & Locke are important to the ○ Means the state is able to demand from the members of society their proportionate share of
consumption of wealth. specialist in academic philosophy and contribution in the maintenance of the government
○ Political Scientist adopts an “economic also to the political scientist.
approach” when seeking to interpret 7. Statistics and Logic
matters like public financial policies ○ Political theorist must have abroad
and government regulation of background & knowledge of current
business. political problems and he must employ
3. Geography Geopolitics scientific methods in gathering and
○ concerned with the study of the evaluating the data & in drawing
influences of physical factors such as conclusions.
population pressures, sources of raw 8. Jurisprudence
materials, geography, etc. ○ This branch of public law is concerned
○ Upon domestic and foreign politics. with the analysis of existing legal
4. Sociology & anthropology systems & also with the ethical,
○ concerned with the origins and nature historical, sociological, & psychological
of social control and governmental foundations of law.
authority, with the abiding influences of
race and culture upon society, & with
the patterns of collective human
behavior. Tax deduction
• Given to corporation
Concepts of State
State Nation
• community of persons more or less • group of people whose members believe they are
numerous, permanently occupying a ancestrally related.
definite portion of territory, having a • largest group to share such a myth of common
government of their own to which the descent, it is, in a sentient sense, the fully
great body of inhabitants render extended family.
obedience, and enjoying freedom from • e.g. Arab Nation, Cherokee Nation, Sioux Nation
external control.

Elements of State
1. People
○ refers to the mass of population living within the state.
○ no requirement as to the number of people that should compose a state.
○ should be neither too small nor too large:
▪ small enough to be well-governed
▪ large enough to be self-sufficing.
○ The smallest state is Vatican. China has the largest population.

2. Territory
Components of Territory: Vatican State
a. Terrestrial – land mass • smallest state; area = 0.43km2
b. Aerial – aerospace • It would fit in Rizal Park in Manila.
c. Fluvial – internal waters
d. Maritime Domain – external water Canada
both surface and sub-aquatic • biggest state; area of 3,852,000 mi2
• covers a surface nearly as large as
Europe.

Philippines – 115,707 mi2 .

3. Government
○ refers to the agency through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed and
carried out

Governance ADMINISTRATION
a. manner of government: the system • means the management of the affairs

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 a. manner of government: the system • means the management of the affairs
or manner of government; of a business, organization, or
b. state of governing a place: the act institution
or state of governing a place;
c. authority: control or authority

Forms of Government:
1. As to number of persons exercising sovereign powers;
A. Government by one
a. Monarchy
 The supreme and final authority is in the hands of a single person
without regard to the source of his election or the nature or duration
of his tenure.
 form of government in which one person has the hereditary right to
rule as head of state during his or her lifetime; the term is also
applied to the state so governed
 Monarchs include such rulers as kings and queens, emperors and
empresses, tsars, and kaisers.
 classified into:
i. Absolute Monarchy or one in which the ruler rules by divine
right;
ii. Limited monarchy or one in which the ruler rules in
accordance with a constitution; exemplified in modern-day
constitutional monarchies
b. Authoritarian
 the supreme power of the dictator whose power is usually through
force
i. strict and demanding obedience: favoring strict rules and
established authority;
ii. demanding political obedience: belonging to or believing in
a political system in which obedience to the ruling person or
group is strongly enforced.

B. Government by few
a. Aristocracy
 political power is exercised by few privileged class
 although the power of government is wielded by a few, theoretically
the administration of government is carried on for the welfare of the
many.
i. people of highest social class: people of noble families or
the highest social class
ii. superior group: a group believed to be superior to all others
of the same kind
iii. government by elite: government of a country by a small
group of people, especially a hereditary nobility
iv. state run by elite: a state governed by an aristocracy.
b. Oligarchy
 form of aristocracy whenever the interests of the people as a whole
are made subservient to the selfish interests of the rulers,
i. small governing group: a small group of people who
together govern a nation or control an organization, often for
their own purposes;
ii. entity ruled by oligarchy: a nation governed or an
organization controlled by an oligarchy;
iii. government by small group: government or control by a
small group of people

Sources of their power:

i. By birth
ii. By wealth
iii. By wisdom

C. Government by many
a. Democracy
 political power is exercised by the majority of the people
i. 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
representatives chosen by the people to act for them.
ii. 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
□ the control of national and local affairs is exercised by the 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, each organ being
supreme within its own sphere.

3. As to relationship between the executive and the legislative branches of the

government;
A. Parliamentary government or cabinet government
□ executive and legislative branch of the government are dependent or
executive branch is part of the legislative branch.
B. Presidential government
□ the state makes the executive independent from the legislative.

4. As to source of power or authority:

A. De facto
□ not so constituted or founded with the existing constitution but has the
general support of the people and has effective control of the territory
over which it exercises its powers.
□ The PLO(Palestine Liberation Organization) and Palestinian
Authority claim that the State of Palestine is a sovereign state, a claim
which has been recognised by most states, though most of the territory it
claims is under the de facto control of Israel.
□ Other entities may have de facto control over a territory but lack
international recognition; these may be considered by the international
community to be only de facto states.
B. De Jure
□ constituted or founded in accordance with the existing constitution of the
state but has no control of the territory.
e.g. during the Second World War, governments-in-exile of a number of
states continued to enjoy diplomatic relations with the Allies,
notwithstanding that their countries were under occupation by Axis
powers.

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 powers.
PRINCIPLES GOVERNING THE OPERATIONS OF GOVERNMENTAL POWERS/
DOCTRINES:
Checks and Balances
▪ doctrine and practice of dispersing political power and creating mutual
accountability among political entities such as the courts, the president or
prime minister, the legislature, and the citizens.
▪ basic feature of the United States government.
□ first check comes from the fact that different branches of the government
have overlapping authority, so each branch can act as a limit on the
other.
e.g. For example, the president can veto an act of Congress. A two-thirds
majority in Congress can then override the president’s veto. The president
appoints major federal officials, but only if the Senate by majority vote agrees.

Separation of Powers
▪ doctrine and practice of dividing the powers of a government among different
branches to guard against abuse of authority.
▪ Cannot encroach because each branch is seperate
▪ A government of separated powers assigns different political and legal powers
to the
□ The legislative branch has the power to make laws.
□ The executive branch has the authority to administer the law—primarily
by bringing lawbreakers to trial—and to appoint officials and oversee the
administration of government responsibilities.
□ The judicial branch has the power to try cases brought to court and to
interpret the meaning of laws under which the trials are conducted.
▪ Advantages
□ less likely to be tyrannical and more likely to follow the rule of law: the
principle that government action must be constrained by laws.
□ make a political system more democratic by making it more difficult for a
single ruler, such as a monarch or a president, to become dictatorial.
□ prevents one branch of government from dominating the others or
dictating the laws to the public

Blending of powers
▪ Can be compared to a blended coffee: milk, coffee, sugar
▪ Functions of gov must blend to come up with actions to address the needs of
the people

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