The state is a community of people permanently living in a definite territory, with an organized government, and possessing sovereignty, that is, independence from external control and supreme authority within.
Introduction
The state is the most important political institution in human society. It provides security, makes and enforces laws, settles disputes and provides public services. The word 'state' comes from the Latin 'status', meaning standing or condition; the Italian thinker Machiavelli was among the first to use 'lo stato' in its modern political sense. Aristotle observed that 'the state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues for the sake of the good life'.
Definitions
- J. W. 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.'
- Woodrow Wilson: 'The state is a people organized for law within a definite territory.'
- J. K. Bluntschli: 'The state is the politically organized people of a definite territory.'
- Aristotle: the state is a union of families and villages having for its end a perfect and self-sufficing life.
- Common features of these definitions: people, territory, organized government and independence (sovereignty).
Element 1: Population
There can be no state without people. Population includes all who live within the state, citizens and non-citizens.
- No fixed size: Vatican City has fewer than a thousand residents, while India has over 1.4 billion; Plato suggested 5,040 citizens for an ideal state and Aristotle a number that could be governed well.
- Quality matters as much as quantity: an educated, healthy, united population makes a strong state.
- Pakistan: about 241.5 million people (2023 census), the world's fifth most populous country, with a very young population.
Element 2: Territory
A state needs a definite area within which its authority is exercised.
- Territory includes land, inland waters, territorial waters (12 nautical miles from the coast) and the airspace above.
- Size varies greatly, from Monaco to Russia.
- Fixed boundaries distinguish the state from nomadic peoples.
- Pakistan: about 881,913 km², with borders with India, China, Afghanistan and Iran, and a coastline of about 1,000 km on the Arabian Sea.
Element 3: Government
Government is the agency or machinery through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed and carried out.
- It consists of three organs: the legislature, executive and judiciary.
- Governments change through elections or other means; the state remains.
- Forms differ: democratic or authoritarian, parliamentary or presidential, federal or unitary.
- Pakistan: a federal parliamentary system under the 1973 Constitution.
Element 4: Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the supreme power of the state. It is the element that distinguishes the state from all other associations, such as a university or a company.
- Internal sovereignty: the state's authority is supreme over all individuals and groups within it.
- External sovereignty: the state is independent of control by any other state.
- A territory without sovereignty, such as a province or a colony, is not a state.
International recognition
Many modern writers add recognition by other states and membership of the United Nations as a practical fifth element. A state such as Taiwan has population, territory and government, but limited recognition restricts its international standing. Pakistan was recognized immediately in 1947 and joined the UN on 30 September 1947.
Functions of the state
- Essential functions: defence, maintenance of law and order, justice, foreign relations, currency and taxation.
- Welfare functions: education, health, social security, infrastructure, environmental protection and economic development.
- Modern states are 'welfare states' that aim not only to protect but to improve citizens' lives.
Conclusion
All four elements are essential: without any one of them a state cannot exist. Population gives the state its life, territory its home, government its machinery, and sovereignty its supreme authority.