Concept of State and Government
State – a community of persons more or less numerous permanently occupying a definite portion of territory, having a government of its own to which the great body of inhabitants renders obedience, and enjoying freedom from external control
Element of the State:
- People – mass of population living within the state
- Territory – fixed portion of the surface of the earth inhabited by the people of the state
- Government – agency through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed and carried out
- Sovereignty – the supreme power of the state to command and enforce obedience
Origin of the State:
- Divine Right Theory – holds that the state is of divine creation and the ruler is ordained by God to govern the people
- Necessity or force theory – maintains that states must have been created through force
- Paternalistic theory – attributes the origin of states to the enlargement of the family
- Social Contract theory – asserts that the early states must have been formed by deliberate and voluntary compact among people to form a government of their own.