State and Sovereignty
THE STATE AND ITS ELEMENTS
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 indentical.
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.
The aims, desires and aspirations of human beings are translated
into action through the state. Though the state is a necessary institution,
no two writers agree on its definition.
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 honourable life'.
To Holland, the state is 'a numerous assemblage of human beings
generally occupying a certain territory amongst whom the will of the
majority or class is made to privail against any of their number who
oppose it.'
Elements :
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.Soverignty
Elements of the State
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. Rousseau
determined 10,000 to be an ideal number for a state. 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.
In the words of 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
will of the State is formulated, expressed and realized.
According to C.F. Strong, in order to make and enforce laws the state
must have supreme 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.
The concept of 'sovereignty' was developed in conjunction with the rise
of the modern state. The term Sovereignty is derived from the Latin
word superanus which means supreme. the father of modern theory of
sovereignty was Jean Bodin (1530 - 1597) a French political thinker.
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.
According to Harold J. Laski, 'It is by possession of sovereignty that the
state is distinguished from all other
forms of human association.
The diagram given below shows that the society is the outer most and
the government is the inner most.
The term Sovereignty is derived from old French word Souverain,
meaning supreme power within a territory. In political sense, it is the
ultimate power or authority , in the process of decision making of the
state and to maintain an order. Its concept is one of the most
controversial ideas in political science and international law, said to be
inter-related to concept of state and government along with
independence and democracy. It is understood in three dimensions- i)
The holder of sovereignty , ii) The absoluteness of sovereignty and iii)
The internal and external dimension of sovereignty. The sovereignty in
embedded in any political institution. And numerous states together
forms a sovereign state system.
The component of the given definition pins an important aspect of the
concept.
First, a holder of the sovereign authority, which means, the person or
entity is not merely wield coercive power, explained as ones ability to
cause someone to do what he would otherwise not do. Authority is
rather what philosopher R.P. Wolff proposed; the right to command
and inter-relatively the right to be obeyed. The important term in here
is right, connoting legitimacy.
The sovereign authority derives its power from a mutual
acknowledgement source of legitimacy, natural law, custom law, a
divine mandate, hereditary law, a constitution and sometimes from the
international law. Sometimes , body of law is ubiquitously source of
sovereignty.
But, it the important gist in a sovereignty is matter of authority, is not
just a matter of merely authority , but also of the supreme authority.
Supremacy is something embedded in the constitution of the United
States to the government of Pennsylvania, or any other entity. The
holder of the sovereignty is supreme to all other authorities under its
umbrella. Supremacy is an endemic to modernity.
The final component of the sovereignty is territory, along with the
political authority in modernity. Territoriality principle is derived by
which members of a community are to be defined it specifies that the
membership derives from their residence within borders. It is a
powerful principle, as it defines membership in a way that , there may
not be correspond with identity.
