State

 The modern term “state” is derived from the word

“status”. 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.

 In common usage the term State is used in varied sense. We

often come across such phrases as ‘state transport’, ‘State
College of education’, ‘State aid to industries’ etc. Strictly
speaking all such usages of the term ‘state’ are wrong.

o The fact is that when we talk of the state transport we refer

to that transport which is run by the government, as
distinguished from the one that is managed by a private
company or an individual capitalist.

o We thus confuse the two terms state and government and do

not understand the difference between the two. Another
equally wrong usage of the term is with regard to the units
of federation. We often describe Punjab, Haryana and
 Himachal are the units of a bigger state, India. All these so-
called states in India are the units of federation.

o In this way, we can say that though term ‘State’ has been
distorted in a number of ways to cover a number of diverse
units and usages yet in political science it has a definite
meaning and a precise definition.

 Burgess says that state is “a particular portion of mankind

viewed as an organized unit.”

 Woodrow Wilson says that the state “is a people organised

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”.

 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.”

 Bodin defines the state as, “an association of families and

their common possessions governed by a supreme power
and by reason”.
 Prof. Laski defines “state as a territorial society divided into
government and subjects whose relationships are determined
by the exercise of supreme coercive power.”

 According to Garner, the state is “a community of persons

more or less numerous permanently occupying a definite
portion of territory, independent, or nearly so of external
control and possessing an organized government to which
the great body of inhabitants render habitual obedience”.

 This definition covers all the elements of modern state

which are: first a number of persons, second, the occupation
of a definite territory, third, having a well-organized
government, fourth, possessing independence of external

 A state is political organization of society, or the body

politic, or, more narrowly, the institutions of government.
The state is a form of human association distinguished from
other social groups by its purpose, the establishment of
order and security; its methods, the laws and their
enforcement; its territory, the area of jurisdiction or
geographic boundaries; and finally by its sovereignty. The
state consists, most broadly, of the agreement of the
individuals on the means whereby disputes are settled in the
form of laws. In such countries as the United
States, Australia, Nigeria, Mexico, and Brazil, the
term state (or a cognate) also refers to political units that are
not sovereign themselves but subject to the authority of the
larger state, or federal union..
The 19th-century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Hegel saw the sphere of liberty as the whole state, with freedom
not so much an individual’s right, but rather, a result of human
reason. Freedom was not the capacity to do as one liked but was
the alignment with a universal will toward well-being. When
men acted as moral agents, conflict ceased, and their aims
coincided. Subordinating himself to the state, the individual was
able to realize a synthesis between the values of family and the
needs of economic life. To Hegel, the state was the culmination
of moral action, where freedom of choice had led to the unity of
the rational will, and all parts of society were nourished within
the health of the whole. However, Hegel remained enchanted
with the power of national aspiration. He did not share the vision
of Immanuel Kant, his predecessor, who proposed the
establishment of a league of nations to end conflict altogether
and to establish a “perpetual peace.”..
Elements of State
The State may thus be said to consist of four elements
namely;
 Population,

 Territory,

 Government,

 Sovereignty

Population
 State being a human institution, cannot be conceived of
without human beings. Population is essential to a state
as threads are to a piece of cloth. A desert or a mountain
peak where people normally do not live, cannot be
described a state. This much is, therefore, certain
that there must be some people to constitute a state.

 Now the question arises how many people should be

there to form a state? This question regarding the
number of persons necessary or desirable for
constituting a state cannot be answered in concrete
terms. There is no limit to the size of its population. All
that is required is that there must be some human being
living in it. This does not mean a dozen people or so
living in place will form a state. Their number should not
be very small, but there is no ceiling (limit) to the
population of the state.
  Some writers have tried to suggest a limit, for
example, Plato felt that an effective number of 5040
citizens should be sufficient.

 His disciple Aristotle opined that the population should

be large enough to be selfsufficing and small enough to
be well-governed. According to him a hundred persons
would rather be too small a number but a hundred
thousand would be too unmanageable.

 Likewise Rousseau, a great admirer of small republics

and direct democracy, thought that ten thousand may be
an ideal number.

 While some states like the U.S.A., Russia, and Canada

are still under populated relative to area, resources and
similar factors. Other states like India, China and Italy
are confronted by the problem of a population which is
expanding too rapidly for their natural or technological
resources.

 Therefore, every state strives to confine its population

within its exiting or potential resources. The former set
of states (U.S.A., former U.S.S.R. and Canada)
encourages increased population in comparison to the
latter which attempts to control the population.

Territory
 Territory is the second essential element of the state. The
people do not become a state unless they permanently
settle down in some territory.
 Previously, philosophers like Hall, Duguit, and
Seeley etc. did not attach much importance to the
permanent settlement of a people on some territory.

 There is now a consensus that nomadic people do not

form a state though they may not be deficient in political
organisation.

 There have been numerous organised groups in the early

periods of human civilization which occupied no fixed
territory.’ It is now a fairly common opinion that such
tribal formations, so long as they do not settle down on a
definite piece of territory, do not constitute states.

 There is no such thing as migratory state, For example,

the Jews were not able to form themselves into a state till
recently because they had no homeland of their own.
They lived scattered over various parts of Palestine and
the Jewish state of Israel; has consequently come into
being.

 Therefore, territory is indispensable in the making of the

state. The authority of the state extends not only over
persons, but over the territory also.

 With regard to the extent of territory also we cannot fix

any hard and fast rules. The modern states vary greatly
in size. On the other hand, the state of San Marino has
an area of only 38 square miles. There was a time when
political thinkers considered the smaller state to be
better. This view prevailed in ancient Greece. Aristotle
was of the opinion that if the size of the state was very
 large, good administration was difficult. Rousseau also
subscribed to this view.

 These writers were to some extent justified partly

because the means of transport and communications
were then un-developed and partly because the
representative institutions had not yet been well
organised.

 But now when the problems of communication and

government no longer hamper us, large size states are
preferable. That is why we find smaller states drawing
closer to each other and forming federations. Larger
states have an added advantage of a vast economic
potential.

 The extent of territory that a state should possess

depends upon the size of the population it has to support.

 If the population is larger than what the natural

resources of the country can sustain, complications are
likely to arise unless it rapidly becomes highly
industrialised and economically efficient.

 On the other hand, if the population is small many tracts

of the territory and the population of the state had
impelled Aristotle to remark that the territory of a state
should be small enough to be well governed and large
enough to be self-sufficient.

 It may be added that the territory of a state also

includes, besides the land surface the entire air space
 above the land surface. Further, the authority of the
state also extends over a part of the sea that touches its
territory coast. The extent of this maritime or coastal
belt as it is called is generally three miles.

 Finally, it may be remarked that the territory of a state

should preferably be contiguous. If it scattered and
separated, it will pose administrative difficulties.

 Pakistan as it existed before the creation

of Bangladesh consisted of the East and West
Pakistan separated from each other by two thousand
miles has been a victim of this geographical misfortune.’

Government
 Government is the concrete expression of the state. The
people may live in a particular piece of territory, but
that inhabited territory cannot be termed as state unless
the people are controlled by a common government.

 Government forms the agency through which the will of

the state is formulated, expressed and executed.

 Population in the absence of government is only

an unorganised mass of people. The government brings
about regulation and adjustment in the life of the people.
The ends of the state can be achieved through the
government only.

 Moreover, the state is incapable of collective action in

any sphere without such an agency. All this means that
 government in one form or another is essential for the
existence of the state.

 The Government has three branches: legislature,

executive and judiciary. The legislature makes
laws, the executive enforces and execute them and the
judiciary interprets and punishes the breach of laws.

 The government exercises the physical coercion at the

disposal of the state and “punishes disobedience to its
command.

 The form of Government is immaterial so far as the state

is concerned. It may be kingship, democratic or
dictatorial, parliamentary or presidential, federal or
unitary. A change in government does not bring a
change in the state.

Sovereignty
 Sovereignty is the most important element of the state. It
alone distinguishes the state from other associations.
There are two kinds of Sovereignty (a) Internal and (b)
External.

 Internal Sovereignty implies the supremacy of the state

over its citizens, over all their associations and over their
entire possessions. This means that the state possesses
authority to secure unquestioned obedience from all
citizens to its laws. If any one of them throws a challenge
to its authority by disobeying its laws, it can inflict upon
him any type of punishment, ranging from a simple
 warning to death penalty depending of course on the
gravity of the crime.

 External sovereignty implies that a state is independent

in its external actions. This means that outside the
territorial bounds of the state, there is no other state,
government, king or any authority, who may issue
command to this state. It is completely free from any
such limitation. It may voluntarily accept and abide by
the dictates of the international law and obligations.

 To sum up, sovereignty means full authority over the

citizens within and complete independence from outside.

 But several other essential elements of a state are

described by writers. Burgess for example, gives all
comprehensiveness and permanence as peculiar elements
of the state. But those are the merits of a state not the
essential elements constituting a state.

 Population, definite territory, well organised government

and sovereignty are thus the essential elements of the
state.
 INDEX
Sno: CONTENT

1 STATE

2 ELEMENT
OF STATE