Module I: Introduction: Basic Concepts

Question 1

The systematic study of the state and government.

Answer 1

Political Science

Question 2

Scope of Political Science 1: The entire body of doctrines relating to the origin, form, behavior, and purposes of the state are dealt with in the study of this subject.

Answer 2

Political Theory

Question 3

Scope of Political Science 2: The (a) organization of governments, (b) limitations upon government authority, (c) the powers and duties of governmental offices and officers, and (d) the obligations of one state to another are handled in the study of _________.

Answer 3

Public Law

Question 4

Scope of Political Science 3: Attention is focused upon the methods and techniques used in the actual management of state affairs by executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.

Answer 4

Public Administration

Question 5

A community of persons more or less numerous, permanently occupying a definite proportion of territory, having a government of their own to which the great body of inhabitants render obedience, and enjoying from external control.

Answer 5

State

Question 6

Elements of a State 1: This refers to the inhabitants living within the state. Without ______ there can be no functionaries to govern and no subjects to be governed.

Answer 6

Elements of a State 1: People

Question 7

Elements of a State 2: It includes not only the fixed portion of land over which the jurisdiction of the state extends (territorial domain), but also the rivers and lakes therein, a certain area of the sea which abuts its coasts (fluvial and maritime domain) and the air space above the land and the waters. (aerial domain). Thus, the domain of the state may be described as terrestrial, fluvial, maritime, and aerial.

Answer 7

Elements of a State 2: Territory

Question 8

Elements of a State 3: It refers to the agency through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed and carried out. The word is sometimes used to refer to the person or aggregate of those persons in whose hands are placed for the time being the function of political control.

Answer 8

Elements of a State 3: Government

Question 9

Elements of a State 4: The term may be defined as the supreme power of the state to command and enforce obedience to its will from people within its jurisdiction and corollarily, to have freedom from foreign control.

Answer 9

Elements of a State 4: Sovereignty

Question 10

2 Types of Sovereignty: Type A: The power of the state to rule within its territory.

Answer 10

Internal Sovereignty

Question 11

2 Types of Sovereignty: Type B: The freedom of the state to carry out its activities without subjection to or control by other states.

Answer 11

External Sovereignty

Question 12

Origin of States: Theory 1: It holds that the state is of divine creation and the ruler is ordained by God to govern the people. Reference has been made by advocates of this theory to the laws which Moses received at Mount Sinai.

Answer 12

Divine Right Theory

Question 13

Origin of States: Theory 2: It maintains that states must have been created through force, by some great warriors who imposed their will upon the weak.

Answer 13

Necessity or Force Theory

Question 14

Origin of States: Theory 3: It attributes the origin of states to the enlargement of the family which remained under the authority of the father or mother. By natural stages, the family grew into a clan, then developed into a tribe which broadened into a nation, and the nation became a state.

Answer 14

Paternalistic Theory

Question 15

Origin of States: Theory 4: It asserts that the early states must have been formed by deliberate and voluntary compact among people to form a society and organized government for their common good.

Answer 15

Social Contract Theory

Question 16

State distinguished from Nation.

Answer 16

1.) The state is a political concept, while nation is an ethnic concept; 2.) A state is not subject to external control while a nation may or may not be independent of external control; 3) A single state may consist of one or more nations or people and conversely, a single nation may be made up of several states.

Question 17

Purpose and Necessity of Government: Government exists and should continue to exist for the benefit of the people governed. It is necessary for (a) the protection of society and its members, the security of persons and property, the administration of justice, the preservation of the state with foreign powers (constituent functions) and (b) the advancement of the physical, economic, social and cultural well-being of the people. (ministrant functions)

Answer 17

(1) Advancement of the Public Welfare

Question 18

Purpose and Necessity of Government: Government exists to do these things which by their very nature, it is better equipped to administer for the public welfare than any private individual or group of individuals. It is obvious that without an organized structure of government, anarchy and disorder, and a general feeling of fear and insecurity will prevail in society, progress and development will not be possible, and values taken for granted in a free modern society such as truth, freedom, justice, equality, rule of law, and human dignity can never be enjoyed.

Answer 18

(2) Consequence of Absence

Question 19

Forms of Government: One in which the supreme and final authority is in the hands of a single person without regard to the source of his election or the nature or duration of his tenure.

Answer 19

Monarchy

Question 20

Monarchy in which the ruler rules by divine right.

Answer 20

Absolute Monarchy

Question 21

Monarchy in which the ruler rules in accordance with a constitution.

Answer 21

Limited Monarchy

Question 22

Forms of Government: One in which political power is exercised by a few privileged class which is known as ___________.

Answer 22

Aristoracy or Oligarchy

Question 23

Forms of Government: One in which political power is exercised by a majority of the people.

Answer 23

Democracy

Question 24

A democracy in which the will of the state is formulated or expressed directly and immediately through the people in a mass meeting or primary assembly rather than through the medium of delegates or representatives chosen to act for them.

Answer 24

Direct or Pure Democracy

Question 25

A democracy in which the will of the state is formulated and expressed through the agency of a relatively small and select body of persons chosen by the people to act as their representatives.

Answer 25

Indirect, Representative, or Republican Democracy

Question 26

The power exercised by the government in which the control of national and local affairs is exercised by the central or national government.

Answer 26

Unitary Government

Question 27

The powers exercised by the government are divided between two sets of organs, one for national affairs and the other for local affairs, each organ being supreme within its own sphere.

Answer 27

Federal Government

Question 28

A relationship of the executive and the legislative in which the state confers upon the legislature the power to terminate the tenure of the office of the real executive.

Answer 28

Parliamentary Government

Question 29

A relationship of the executive and the legislative in which the state makes the executive constitutionally independent of the legislature as regards his tenure and to a large extent as regards to his policies and acts, and furnishes him with sufficient powers to prevent the legislature from trenching upon the sphere marked out by the constitution as executive independence and prerogative.

Answer 29

Presidential Government

Question 30

Classification of the Philippine Government

Answer 30

The Philippine government is a 1) Representative Democracy; 2) Unitary and Presidential Government with separation of powers. It also has Pure Democracy because of Constitutional Provision on Initiative and Referendum. Under our Constitution, 1) Executive Power is vested in the President and Cabinet; 2) Legislative Power is vested in the Congress: Composed of a Senate and House of Representatives; 3) Judicial Power is vested in the Supreme Court and the lower courts.