State - Elements

State and its Elements
INTRODUCTION The modern term “state” is derived from the word “status”. It was
Niccolo Machiavelli ( 1469 – 1527) who first used the term “state” in his writings. His
important work is titled as “Prince”.
• Definitions : The state is the most universal and most powerful of all social
institutions. The state is a natural institution. Aristotle said man is a social animal and
by nature he is a political being. To him, to live in the state and to be a man were
identical.
• The state is the highest form of human association. It is necessary because it comes
into existence out of the basic needs of life. It continues to remain for the sake of
good life
• To Woodrow Wilson, “State is a people organized for law within a definite territory.”
• Aristotle defined the state as a “union of families and villages having for its end a
perfect and self – sufficing life by which it meant a happy and good life”. Burgess
defines the state as “a particular portion of mankind viewed as an organized unit.”

Definitions According to Sidgwick. “State is a combination or
association of persons in the form of government and governed
and united together into a politically organized people of a
definite territory.”
According to Garner, “State is a community of people live in a
definite form of territory free of external control and possessing
an organized government to which people show habitual
agreement.”
Prof. Laski defines “state as a territorial society divided into
government and subjects whose relationships are determined by
the exercise of supreme coercive power.”
• THE ELEMENTS OF STATE
• From the above definitions, it is clear that the
following are the elements of the state :-
Physical bases of the State
• 1. Population
• 2. Territory
Political bases of the State
• 1.Government
• 2. Sovereignty
Population
• It is the people who make the state. Population is essential for the
state.
• Greek thinkers were of the view that the population should neither be
too big nor too small. According to Plato the ideal number would be
5040.
• According to Aristotle, 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.
Greek thinkers like Plato and Aristotle thinking on the number was based
on small city – states like Athens and Sparta. Modern states vary in
population. India has a population of 102,70,15,247 people according
to 2001 census.
• Territory There can be no state without a fixed territory. People need
territory to live and organize themselves socially and politically.
• It may be remembered that the territory of the state includes land,
water and air – space. The modern states differ in their sizes. Territory
is necessary for citizenship. As in the case of population, no definite
size with regard to extent of area of the state can be fixed. There are
small and big states.
Prof. Elliott “territorial sovereignty or the Superiority of state overall
within its boundaries and complete freedom from external control
has been a fundamental principle of the modern state life”. India has
an area of 32,87,263 sq. km. Approximately India occupies 2.4% of
the global area.
Government : Government is the third element of the
state. There can be no state without government.
Government is the working agency of the state. It is
the political organization of the state.
Prof. Appadorai defined government as the agency
through which the force of the State is formulated,
expressed and realized.
According to C.F. Strong, in order to make and enforce
laws the state must have highest authority. This is
called the Government.
Sovereignty : The fourth essential element of the state is
sovereignty. The word ”sovereignty” means supreme and final
legal authority above and beyond which no legal power exists
Sovereignty has two aspects :
1) Internal sovereignty
2) External sovereignty
Internal sovereignty means that the State is supreme over all its
citizens, and associations.
External sovereignty means that the state is independent and
free from foreign or outside control.
SOVEREIGNTY
The state come into being when an independent group of people are
organized by means of a government which creates and enforces
laws. Within this group there must be supremacy and will and
power.
• It must contain some person or body of persons whose
commands receive obedience who can, if necessary, execute those
commands by means of force. Such person or body of person
exercise sovereignty and such commands are called laws.
• Evidently there can no limit to sovereignty. The state is legal
sovereign, there can be no legal limit to lawmaking power of the
supreme law making associations
CHARACTERISTICS OF SOVEREIGNTY
(1) Absoluteness: there can be no legal power within the state superior to
it, and there can be no legal limit to the supreme law-making power of
state.
(2) Universality: the sovereignty of the state extends over every person
and every association of persons in the state.
(3) Permanence: the sovereignty of the state continues as long as the
state itself exists. Only by the destruction of the state sovereignty be
destroyed.
(4) Indivisibility: there can be one sovereignty in the state. To divide
sovereignty is to destroy it. The exercise of its power may be distributed
among various governmental organs but the sovereignty is a unit, just
as the state is a unit.

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State and its Elements

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