I.

Introduction

Political Science= the systematic study of the state.

“political”- from the Greek word polis, meaning city or sovereign state

“science”- from the Latin word scire, “to know”

ASK: EXPECTATIONS OR WHAT DO U THINK ARE THE TOPICS COVERED UNDER POLITICAL SCIENCE

II. Concepts of State and Government

Meaning of State

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 obedience, and enjoying freedom
from external control.

Elements of State

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

- Without the people, there can be no functionaries to govern, and no subjects to be governed
2. Territory- domain of the state
3. Government- the agency through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed and carried out.
4. Sovereignty
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.

Origin of States

1. Divine right theory- the state is of divine creation and the ruler is ordained by God to govern the people.
2. Necessity or force theory- states must have been created through force, by some great warriors who
imposed their will upon the weak.
3. Paternalistic theory- enlargement of the family (family—clan—tribe—nation---state)
4. Social contract theory- early states must have been formed by deliberate and voluntary compact among the
people to form a society and organize government for their common good.

State vs Nation

1. The state is a political concept while nation is an ethnic concept.

- Nation= 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 the others.
- The term “nation” is more strictly synonymous with people
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 more nations, and conversely, a single nation may be made up of several
states.
- US (state consisting different nations); Arab Nation (nation consisting different states: Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, etc.)

State vs Government

- A state cannot exist without a government, but it is possible to have a government without a state.
- A government is only the agency through which the state expresses its will.

Forms of government

1. As to the number of persons exercising sovereign powers:

a. Monarchy
- One in which 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
- Absolute monarchy- one in which the ruler rules by divine right
- Limited monarchy- the ruler rules in accordance with the Constitution
 Qatar is a west Asian absolute monarchy
 Thailand is a constitutional monarchy that lies in Southeast and England (head of the state but
not head of the govt)
- ONE or SINGLE
b. Aristocracy
- Political power is exercised by a few privileged class
- FEW
c. Democracy
- Political power is exercised by a majority of people
- 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 to act for them
- Indirect representative or republican democracy- 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 or national government
a. Unitary government
- The control of national and local affairs is exercised by the central or national government
- A unitary state is a state governed as one single unit in which the central government is supreme and
any administrative divisions (subnational units) exercise only powers that their
central government chooses to delegate.
 The United Kingdom is an example of a unitary state. Scotland, Wales, and Northern
Ireland have a degree of autonomous devolved power. But such devolved power is delegated by
the Parliament of the United Kingdom which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing
devolution
b. Federal government
- The powers of government are divided between two sets of organs, one for national affairs and other for
local affairs, each organ being supreme within its own sphere.
- In federal states, by contrast, states or other subnational units share sovereignty with the
central government, and the states constituting the federation have an existence and power functions
that cannot be unilaterally changed by the central government.
 The United States is an example of a federal state. Under the U.S. Constitution, power is shared
between the Federal government of the United States and the U.S. states,
3. As to the relationship between the executive and the legislative branches of the government
a. Parliamentary government
- The state confers upon the legislature the power to terminate the tenure of office of the real executive.
Under this system, the cabinet or ministry is immediate and legally responsible to the legislature and
mediately or politically responsible to the electorate.
- A parliamentary system is a system of democratic governance of a state in which the executive branch
derives its democratic legitimacy from, and is held accountable to, the legislature (parliament); the
executive and legislative branches are thus interconnected. In a parliamentary system, the head of state is
normally a different person from the head of government.
b. Presidential government
- The state makes the executive constitutionally independent of the legislature as regards his tenure,
policies, acts and furnishes him with sufficient powers to prevent the legislature from trenching upon the
sphere marked out by the constitution as executive independence and prerogative.
- a presidential system in a democracy, where the head of state often is also the head of government, and
most importantly: the executive branch does not derive its democratic legitimacy from the legislature.

Countries with parliamentary systems may be constitutional monarchies, where a monarch is the ceremonial
head of state while the head of government is almost always a member of the legislature (such as United
Kingdom, Sweden and Japan), or parliamentary republics, where a mostly ceremonial president is the head of
state while the head of government is regularly from the legislature (such
as Ireland, Germany, Pakistan, Indiaand Italy).