CHAPTER I
2 Constitutional Law: is the body of law which
What is Political Science?
- It is the study of state, government and
politics
- The art and Science of Governance.
What is politics?
From the historical point of view the term
politics came from the Greek word polis or City-
state
Fields of Political Science:
1. Political Theory
2. Public Law
3. International Relations, International
Law, and International Organization
4. Government
5. Comparative Government
6. Public administration
7. Political Dynamics
8. Government and Business
9. Legislature and legislation
1. Political Theory: Is a branch of political
science which deals with the study of state
through a systematic body of principles relating
to the origin, form, behavior, and purposes of
the state, and upon which its political system
operates. Political theory is all about political
though from great political thinker or
philosopher about political phenomena.
2. Public Law: It refers to the constitutional and
legal principles/rules governing sovereign
states, governments and individual in their
relationship with one another.
2.1 International Law: the body of generally
accepted principles that governs and regulates
the international relationship and conduct of
nation-state.
2.
defines the relationship of different entities
within a state, namely, the executive,
the legislature, and the judiciary.
2.3 Administrative Law: is the body of law that
governs the activities of administrative
agencies of government. Government
agency action can include rulemaking,
adjudication, or the enforcement of a
specific regulatory agenda.
3. International Relations, International Law,
and International Organization: The focus in
this field of political science involves inquires
into foreign policy of nation-states in their
mutual relationships on the different forces.
4. Government: it is a distinct branch of study,
dealing with the government set-up of a state
on both national and local levels. It covers the
state constitution, laws, citizenship, structures
of various levels of government, the election
process, the judicial system, political parties,
and interest groups, foreign affairs, etc.
5. Comparative Government: this study uses
descriptive analytical or sociological method in
seeking the similarities and differences among
states as regards their executive, legislative and
judiciary bodies, their constitution, laws,
administrative organizations, foreign policies,
political parties and process, economic, social
and political functions, and their cultures and
traditions.
6. Public administration: it bring forth a
fountain of knowledge on the techniques and
method of managing and administering
government in the phases of administrative
organization, personnel administration,
financial of fiscal administration, and the
management of good public relations.
7. Political Dynamics: it refers to the study of
political science which is concerned with the
interplay of different societal forces that
influence political decision and action.
8. Government and Business: it is the field that
gives emphasis to governmental exercise of
corporate, or business function, as well as its
regulatory function affecting the national
economy.
9. Legislature and legislation: as a branch of
political science it brings political limelight the
vital role of the legislature is to make law.
Number game.
CHAPTER II
What is a State?
State is a community of persons more or less
numerous, permanently occupying a fix and
definite portion of territory, having a
government of its own rendering habitual and
free from external control.
Essential elements of the State:
1. People
2. Territory
3. Government
4. Sovereignty
People: Living human being inhabitants of the
state
Territory: A fix portion of the Earth wherein the
people of the state resides.
Government: An Agency through which the will
of the state is formulated and carried out
Sovereignty: The supreme and final legal
authority of the state to enforce its will on its
member.
- Internal Sovereignty: the ability or
power of the state to enforce its will on
the people within its territorial
jurisdiction.
- External sovereignty: Independence of
the state of a state from control by
other state.
Characteristic of Sovereignty:
1. Absolute: The exercise by the state of
its sovereign powers is absolute in a
sense that the state is not subject to
restriction by any other power.
However, in reality, we cannot say that
the sovereign power of the state is
absolute especially when the state has
treaty agreements with other states.
Treaties are the chief basis of
international law, and if a nation-state
is a signatory to a treaty, let us say, a
defence treaty or a military agreement,
then it has to surrender some sovereign
rights that infringe upon certain
provision of the treaty. A perfect
example for this would be the
Philippines although it declared its
independence from Spain on June 12,
1898 it became again a colony for
another Foreign Power which is the
United States, when the latter granted
the Philippines political independence
on July 4, 1946, it did not have an
absolute independence during the
ensuing years for it remained a vassal of
United States economic imperialism.
2. Comprehensive: The sovereignty of a
Nation-State is comprehensive for its
 supreme legal authority to extend to all
the citizens, aliens, associations or
organization within its boundaries.
There is an exemption to this
characteristic of sovereignty. Rules of
international relations, however,
provided several exemptions to this
characteristic. Under the mutual
respect or international courtesy,
diplomatic immunity is extended to
foreign ambassadors, ministers
together with their respective families
during the period of their assignment in
the host nation-state. Under the
principle of ex-territoriality, diplomatic
immunity means that diplomatic
representative and their families are
exempted from local jurisdiction of the
state.
3. Permanent: Sovereign is perpetual in
the sense that as long as the state
exists, sovereignty also exist. This is
because sovereignty is an inherent
attribute of the state. Rulers may be
ousted through elections, or they may
be overthrown from power through
revolutions. Government may be
changed from one form to another. But
as long as the state exists, sovereignty is
always present as one of its elements.
4. Indivisible: Sovereignty is indivisible
power as “to divide sovereignty is to
destroy it” in fact, the exercise of
sovereignty may be distributed but not
sovereignty itself. Thus the power of
the government are apportion to
Legislative, Executive and Judiciary and/
or distributed into Central and local
government. However these are not
evidence of division of sovereignty, but
manifestation of how it is exercised. It is
important to understand about the
indivisibility of sovereignty is that such
supreme authority or supreme will is
the monopoly of the state. The exercise
of authority may be delegated to
various organ of the government.
This concept may be best applied to a
federal system like the United States.
Between the latter and Hawaii, a
component part, which is sovereign? In
this case, there can be no two supreme
powers in a state; only the United
States is sovereign: It is only the locus
or central source.
However, Hawaii can be independent
from the federal government when it
exercises governmental powers on local
matters but the exercise of such power
should conform to the political system
of the United States. Moreover such
exercise of power by Hawaii as a
“STATE” is not an exercise of
sovereignty. If it ever exercises a
sovereign power for a certain purpose
that power is only delegated by and is
derived from the supreme authority of
the United States.
Type of State Sovereign:
1. Legal Sovereign: is defined as the
supreme authority of the state
expressed by the law and the
constitution. As per John Austin in
his lectures on Jurisprudence
describes law as a supreme
command enforce by the ruler upon
his people who in turn render
habitual loyalty and obedience to
the rule and the latter calls that as
Positive Law
Whichever authority has the power to
make the law or amend the
constitution, that authority exercise
legal or constituent sovereignty. In the
Philippines it is the Congress,
Constitutional Convention and the
people which exercise legal authority to
change the constitution.
2. Political Sovereignty: The supreme
will of the state expressed by the
electorate. Political Sovereignty is
also called electoral sovereignty in
the sense that this supreme
authority if the state is exercised by
the electorate in the choice if public
officers at least during election.
3. Popular Sovereignty: Popular
Sovereignty is supreme authority of
the state which resides in the
people. This authority possess
coercive power to control
government through which they
allow themselves to be governed. It
was said that sovereignty resides in
the people and all government
authority emanates from them. (i.e.
Martial Law/People Power)
4. De Facto Sovereignty: Power was
vested on a person or a group of
persons who have succeeded in a
legitimate sovereign. From a legal
stand point, the revolutionary
government that was established
after the installation to the
presidency of Corazon Cojuangco-
Aquino was not sanctioned by the
constitution for the power that it
exercise was not found in the
constitution or in the laws, hence,
the revolutionary government as de
facto..
5. De jure Sovereignty: The theory of
de facto sovereignty is that the
supreme legal authority of the state
is based on the supremacy of the
law this means that sovereignty is
formally expressed by the
constitution and by the laws
enacted conformably with its
provision. In reference with the
revolutionary government as
explained above, it was at its
inception illegal for lack of
constitutional basis. But it acquired
de jure Status when it gained wide
acceptance from the people and
recognition from the community of
nations.
Theories of State Origin:
1. Divine Right Theory: The Idea that the
ruler was God’s appointed agent on
Earth legitimated the king’s rule, and
that no matter how absolute his power
were, such power could never be
question or assailed by anyone. To
challenge the ruler was to challenge
God’s authority.
2. Force Theory: in this theory state came
to existence out of conquest, force or
coercion. One good example of this
theory is the Philippines.
3. Natural Theory: Under this Theory the
state is just like a living organism which
is natural because it has the capacity to
grow, develop and attain fully civilized
life.
4. Patriarchal Theory: the state started
through the process of evolution from
family it gradually form a Clan and later
on the clan expanded and for a tribe
and tribe grew bigger and for a nation
and lastly the nation form a State.
5. Instinctive Theory: in this theory the
state was created because of the
natural inclination of men toward
political association. A social being by
nature, man associated himself with
other men for self-preservation and
security.
6. Economic Theory: associated with
other men in order to provide
themselves with their various need
through exchange of goods and services
and led a societal existence.
7. Social Contract Theory: individuals have
consented or explicitly surrender some
of their freedoms and submit to the
authority of the ruler.
a. Social Contract by Thomas Hobbes: The
Stronger animal despoiled the weaker
one. Man’s desire for Self Preservation,
order and peace could be attained only
if they surrender their natural rights
and submitted their will to the absolute
monarchy, the Great Leviathan or the
“Mortal god” in return. This great
Leviathan would preserve the peace
and give his people the security they
need. Pick or Select who will protect
them.
b. Social Contract by John Locke: men
were rational beings and could make
use of natural law for their own Good.
But they need the state to maintain
peace and order provide them with
essential services. Maintain natural
rights; surrender their rights to govern
them. Democracy. According to Locke,
all humans have natural rights to
life, liberty and property. These
rights predate the formation of
governments, so governments must
uphold them if they wish to remain
legitimate in the eyes of their
subjects. Subjects, in turn, consent
to government power only when
their rights are being protected.
Subjects withdraw consent when
their rights are violated.
Government, according to Locke’s
theory, is based on a social contract
between rulers and their subjects. If
kings, generals, prime ministers fail
to uphold their side of the social
contract by violating the natural
rights of their subjects, those
subjects are immediately freed from
their duty to obey government
decisions. This means that subjects
have the right and duty to rebel
against rulers when the latter fail to
uphold their responsibilities.
c. Social Contract by Jean Jacques
Rousseau: He believed that the only
free government was a direct
democracy in which the citizens actually
participated in a town meeting to
perform functions of the government.
All citizens, have equal right to
participate in the making of laws and in
the decision-making process. Under the
theory of general will, Rousseau
belittled the importance of government
 because it did not exercise sovereignty
which rightfully belongs to the people
as a corporate body. Government is
merely agent with delegated powers
which could be withdrawn or altered as
the general will of the people dictates.
State versus Nation
A state is a political concept, legal fiction. It is
perpetual existence as long as its four essential
elements (People, Territory, Government, and
Sovereignty) are intact. Compare to Nation it is
an ethnic concept, a sociological collectivity of
individuals who possess in common certain non-
political characteristics such as common racial
origins, common language, common religion,
common historical experience, a common
cultural and social tradition or common beliefs
or creed.
Even if some of the essential elements of a
nation may not be present, like absence of
common racial origins, religion, common
culture or those of a state, like absence of
sovereignty or lack of territory, provided the
spirit of nationalism is strong among the people
they still constitute as a nation although they do
not form a state.
CHAPTER III
According to Plato government by one, few or
the many may be good or bad, each form of
government has its counterpart in the bad.
Mobocracy
Government by one Person
1. Monarchy: A form of government
where the ruler is a monarch who
comes from a royal family. His royal title
may be king, queen, emperor, empress,
tzar or tsarina, or any royal title of a
monarch ruling the state.
a. Absolute Monarchy: The monarch
exercises the absolute powers and
wields executive, legislative and judicial
powers.
b. Limited Monarchy: Also known as
Enlightened Monarchy, the monarch is
willing to part with some of his powers
and delegates them to some
government agencies. Example
Legislative power is exercise by the
Legislative body, the judicial power by
the court and the executive power by
the king himself. He rules in accordance
with the law, especially the
constitution.
2. Dictatorship: A form of government
came from the military or civilian class.
During the time of stress or emergency
in the past, the people sometimes
vested tremendous emergency powers
in military commander, to be
withdrawn after the emergency
vanished. But the ambition of the
dictator with many pretensions would
insist that emergency still exist. Usually
the dictator proclaims himself as the
champion and protector of the poor
people.
a. Totalitarianism: it is when the dictator
controls everything – all the means of
communication, homes, schools and
churches, the nation’s economy and
even the people’s lives, their minds and
souls. The leader dictator favors ultra-
nationalism.
Totalitarianism Characteristic:
a. Built on Ideological Function: The
government utilizes ideology to
captivate the people’s belief in and
Loyalty to the leader dictator.
b. Totalitarian Leader wields absolute
power: In the totalitarian regime there
is a hierarchy of the elites led by the
leader dictator who is closely identified
with his followers. He cultivates the
loyalty and obedience of the people to
maintain the power.
c. Totalitarian Dictatorship uses
Terrorism: To control people they use
terrorism, coercion or intimidation I
usually accompanied by brutality and
violence
d. Totalitarian control the nation’s
economy: Every business enterprise is
regulated coordinated and directly by
the existing regime. Decision pertaining
to economic policies are made or a
group of elite persons in the
dictatorship or more probably the
dictator himself, usually for political
end.
e. Totalitarian dictatorship is against non-
conformists: this are those people who
are or do not merge themselves to the
system in addition no one can question
the policy of the dictatorship. Hitler
eliminated the intellectual those are
lawyers, doctors, even generals who
goes against him.
Government by the Few
3. Aristocracy: is defined from the Greek
etymology, aristo which means best and kratia
or Kratos, rule. “rule of the best" Aristocracy is a
government of the “best” member of the
community. They belong to the elite in the
society and their social status, wealth and
political power are inherited.
4. Oligarchy: also a government of wealthy few
but do not come from nobility like the
aristocrats. The wealthy few in the government
believes that the most important requisites to
claim power are Wealth, Good Social Position
and Education.
Oligarchs are the enemy of the poor. That is
why the poor have reason to rebel against an
oligarch government that tries to entrench itself
to power. They are in the government to
control it for their own personal benefits as
they use the government to build economic
empires for themselves and their family.
Oligarchy and aristocracy are also authoritarian
(enforcing strict obedience to authority
especially in the government at the expense of
personal freedom), just as monarchy and
dictatorship are. Since there are no elections in
which the citizen participates. In fact majority of
the people does not participate in policy making
and have no chosen representatives. This is
more plutocracies (Rule by the rich) these
authoritarian government does not allow
people to organize political parties and interest
groups.
Government by the Many
4. Democracy: from the Greek word Demos
means people, and Kratia or kratos, Rule
In other words, democracy means “People
Rule”
A democratic government must be a living and
working instrumentality to institutionalized
democracy ideals in order to make them more
effective and more meaningful wherein a
government composed of public officers so
chosen or selected by the people must act
responsively in accordance with the will of the
people wherefore a responsive society prevails
in which people follow government as it does its
best for them. A democratic government is
identified by two essential features:
a. Majority Rule: the citizen has mandated
to choose the men and women who
have the authority to govern and make
public policies.
b. Minority Rights: minority citizens
openly attempt to in majority support
for leaders and policies without loss of
individual rights just as these rights are
enjoyed by the majority.
“Follow the interest of the majority; protect the
interest of the minority”
Means in making democracy work:
1. The Citizens: the citizen plays a vital
part in making democracy work. A
militant and responsible citizenry is
needed to prevent government from
committing abuses short of tyranny.
Moreover, such citizenry can effectively
act as a lever to maintain the balance
between power and authority of the
government leaders.
Citizen should exercise their liberty and
freedoms within the bounds of the
constitution and law, just as the
government should exercise its
authority within its limits.
2. Suffrage and Electoral Process: suffrage
is a right conferred by the law upon a
qualified group of citizens to choose
their public officials and to participate
in the determination of proposed
policies whenever these policies are
submitted to them for approval. The
citizens therefore must use this right to
elect into public office able and
qualified officials who govern
responsibly.
The relationship between elected
leaders and the citizenry is called
Polyarchy (the control of the political
leaders by their followers through the
electoral process). The fear that their
supporters will vote for their rivals in
the next election enables these leaders
to perceive the will and aspiration of
the people and thus try their best to
fulfil them.
3. Political Parties: they are the driving
forces of democracy. Without political
parties the government can be despotic
or Tyrannical in rule as there will be no
opposition to counter the action of
administration. (i.e. Liberal Party, PDP-
Laban) do not be confused with Political
Parties as their main goal is to represent
the marginalized sector of the society
(i.e. ACT-CIS, Construction worker
Solidarity CWS, ACT Teachers Party-list).
4. Interest and Pressured Group: Interest
and pressured group are effective
means of mobilizing the government to
function in accordance with the
principle that the government exist for
the greatest happiness for the greatest
number of people in the society. (i.e.
ANAKBAYAN, GABRIELA, ANAKPAWIS,
KMU)
Weaknesses of democracy: we can classify
the weakness of democracy through
oligarchies because political authority is
exercise by few elite groups whose wealth
and influence are their insurance to power.
Defence of Democracy: it allows the citizen to
participate in electoral process in which they
choose the candidate that will uplift their
general interest for a better government as the
power of democracy resides in the peoples
vote.
The Institutional types of Government
1. Unitary Government: Concentrates its
governmental power in one organ, the central
or national government to which the
constituent or local government owe their
existence and from which they derive their
power and functions. The unitary system has
been found to have a strong foundation and a
more effective political authority of the
sovereign ruler over the people, to attain with
faster facility the desirable goals and objectives
of the state.
Advantage:
1. Simple structure
2. No duplication of public or government
office
3. Unified law, public policy, and
administration of government
4. There is no conflict of jurisdiction
between the national and local
government units
5. Easy to pinpoint responsibility for any
misdeed or anomaly committed by
government officials.
Disadvantages:
1. Over Centralized administrative control
over local affairs overburden the central
government with numerous local
problems. Local government initiative in
public affairs will have very limited
authority and cannot take an
immediate action on important matter
of local concern.
2. National officials are responsible for
determining policies to regulate the
conduct of local affairs. They may not
be able to formulate effective policies
that are suitable to a certain locality
because they lack adequate knowledge
of the local condition prevailing in a
particular area.
3. Restrains local initiative and interest in
managing the affairs of the local
government. Local officials shall
administer local affairs only within the
limits of certain powers delegated to
them by the national government. Even
they want to undertake a project for
the urgent needs of their community
they cannot do so unless approved by
the central government.
4. Hastens the creation of a large
centralized bureaucracy (Complex with
multilayered system and process). Thus,
in a centralized bureaucracy there is
much red tape in the solution of
people’s problem.
5. Not suitable for large country why?
Local problems require appropriate
measures for the solution of these
problems.
2. Federal Government: Government powers
are divided between the central government
and its local Government unit as specified in the
constitution of the state.
Advantage
1. Each government is independent in its
sphere of jurisdiction within scope of
authority.
 2. Provides uniformity when it is needed
in terms of federal laws, policies and
administration, and allows wide
diversity of local policies to be
determined and promulgate by local
officers or respective localities.
3. Enhance people’s interest in the local
government; they are more cooperative
in maintaining peace and order,
promotion of health and sanitation.
4. Relieves the national government time
consuming effort in solving local
problems.
5. Provides great opportunity for local
government to experiment on new
legislative and administrative method of
solving peoples problem
Disadvantage
1. The structure and organization of the
political machinery is complex
2. Duplication of office and personnel, and
maintaining the operation of the
government system would cause heavy
financial burden to the government.
3. Overlapping of function may occur in
many areas of government activity,
whenever governmental problems arise
on the boundary line of authority as
prescribe by the constitution. Both
federal and local governments may be
hesitant to act on these problem may
cause delay in solving problem
4. Lack of uniform legislation on many
matters makes the problems of
administration more difficult.
time as mandated under the constitution.
Appoints member of his cabinet.
Essential element of presidential system is the
separation of power of the executive, legislative
and judiciary branch which is made more
effective by check and balances of the three
branches.
Parliamentary System: under this form or
government the power of executive belongs to
the prime minister and his cabinets. They are
the leaders of the majority party in the
parliament and they can remain in the office as
long as they have confidence and support of the
parliamentary majority.
Prime minister and his cabinet can be removed
by means of parliamentary censure on the
minister.
Sources:
1. Fundamentals of Political Science. F.G.
Ayson, D. Aligada-Reyes
2. Introduction to Political Science: a
simplified textbook in Political Science. J.
Donato
3. Philippine Government. R. Holmes

Presidential and Parliamentary Governments

Presidential System: The presidential power is

exercised by a single president elected by
popular vote. Hold office for a specific period of