Introduction to Political Science and Philippine Constitution

Lesson 1

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

 Explain the meaning, scope and nature of political science

 Understand the concept of State and government
 Examine the evolution and importance of the Philippine Constitution

A. The study of Political Science

Meaning of Political Science

Political science is the systematic study of the state and government. The word “political” is
derived from the Greek word polis, meaning a city, or equivalent to sovereign state. The word “science”
comes from the Latin word scire, “to know”.

In a classical definition, the word “politics” refers to the art or science of government concerned
with the proper management of the affairs of the society.

Scope of Political Science

The term political science is a very comprehensive field as it covers political theory, public law,
and public administration.

1. Political theory – include the entire body of doctrines relating to the origin, form, behavior, and
purposes of the state.
2. Public law – it include the following:
a. Organization of the government,
b. The limitations upon government authority,
c. The powers and duties of governmental offices and officers, and
d. The obligation of one state to another.
3. Public administration – it focuses on the methods and techniques used in the actual
management of state affairs by executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.

Interrelationship with other branches of learning

Political science has no precise and definitive boundaries as it shares many points of common
interest with other social disciplines.
 1. History. – The bond between the political scientist and historian is obvious observation that
“history is past politics and politics present history.” The political scientist frequently adopts
a “historical approach” and employs knowledge of the past when he seeks to interpret
present and probable developments in political phenomena.
2. Economics. – Political science and economics were coupled under the name of “political
economy.” The political scientist regularly adopts an “economic approach” when seeking to
interpret such matters as “public financial policies” and government regulation of business.
3. Geography. – Geopolitics indicates one approach which a political scientist frequently must
adopt to help explain such phenomena as the early growth of democracy in Great Britain
and United States and its retarded growth in certain Continental Europe, and the rise of
authoritarian governments in developing countries.
4. Sociology and anthropology. – the political scientist, the sociologist and anthropologist are
all deeply concerned with the origins and nature of social control and governmental
authority, with the abiding influences of race and culture upon society, and with the
patterns of collective human behavior.
5. Jurisprudence. – branch of public law concerned with the analysis of existing legal system
and also with the ethical, historical, sociological, and physiological foundation of law.

Why you should study political science?

1. Education for citizenship. – In answer, it should be made clear that the primary objectives of
political science curriculum is education for citizenship. It is the preparation of the students for
careers in politics, law, teaching, the civil service, and the foreign services.
2. Essential parts of liberal educations. – Most political science or public administration courses
should be viewed as essential parts of liberal education, bearing no materialistic price tag and
promising no job security.
3. Knowledge and understanding of government. – It seeks to gather and impart this knowledge
and understanding.

B. Concept of State and Government

Meaning of State

State is a community of persons more or less numerous, permanently occupying a definite

portion of territory, having a government of their own to which the great body of inhabitants render
obedience, and enjoying freedom from external control.

Elements of State

The modern state has four (4) essential elements. They are the following:

1. People – This refers to the inhabitants living within the state. Without people there can be no
functionaries to govern and no subjects to be governed. There is requirement as to the number
of people that should compose a state. Ideally it should be neither too small nor too large: small
enough to be well-governed and large enough to be self-sufficing.
 2. Territory – 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 upon its coasts (fluvial and maritime domain) and the air space above the land and waters
(aerial domain).
3. Government – 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. This
“body of men” is usually spoken of as “administration.”
4. Sovereignty – 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 corollarilly, to have the
freedom from foreign control. It has, therefore two (2) manifestations:
a. Internal or the power of the state to rule within its territory; and
b. External or the freedom of the state to carry out its activities without subjection to or
control by other state. External sovereignty is often referred to as independence.

Origin of states

There are several theories concerning the origin of states, among which are:

1. Divine Right Theory – It holds that the state is of divine creation and the ruler is ordained by
the God to govern the people;
2. Necessity or Force Theory – it maintains that states must have been created through force, by
some great warriors who imposed their will upon weak;
3. Paternalistic Theory – It attributes the origin of states to the enlargement of the family which
remained under the authority of the father or mother.
4. Social Contract Theory – It asserts that the early states must have been formed by deliberate
and voluntary compact among people to form society and organize government for their
common good.

State distinguished from nation

Nation should not be confused with state as they are not the same.

State Nation
Is a political concept Ethnic concept
 Group of people bound together by
certain characteristics such as common
social origin, language, customs, and
traditions.
Not subject to external control May or may not be independent of external
control.
A single state may consist of one or more nations A single nation may be made up of several states
or people conversely  Ex. Arab Nation is divided politically in
 Ex. United States is melting pot of several several sovereign states
nationalities.
State distinguished from government

In common concept, they are usually regarded as identical.

1. The acts of the government are the acts of the state, the former is meant when the latter is
mentioned.
2. The government is only the agency through which the state articulates its will. The former is the
agent, the latter is the principal.
3. A state cannot exist without a government, but it is possible to have a government without
state.

Purpose and necessity of government

1. Advancement of the public welfare – government exist and should continue to exist for the
benefit of the people governed
a. The protection of the society and its member, the security of persons and property, the
administration of justice, the preservation of the state from external danger, dealing of
the state with the foreign powers
b. The advancement of physical, economic, social and cultural well-being of the people.
2. Consequence of absence – government exist to do these thigs which by their very nature, it is
better equipped to administer 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 feeing 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

Forms of government

The principal forms are the following:

1. As to the number of persons exercising sovereign powers:

a. Monarchy or 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 tenure. Monarchies are further classified into:
i. Absolute monarchy or one in which the ruler rules by divine right; and
ii. Limited monarchy or one in which the ruler rules in accordance with
the constitution;
b. Aristocracy or one in which political power is exercised by few privileged class
which is known as an aristocracy or oligarchy; and
c. Democracy or one in which political power is exercised by majority of the
people. Democratic governments are further classified into:
i. Direct or pure democracy or one 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;
 ii. Indirect, representative , or republican democracy or one 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.

2. As to extent of powers exercised by the central or national government:

a. Unitary government or one in which the control of national and local affairs is
exercised by the central or national government; and
b. Federal government or one in which the powers of the government are divided
between the two (2) sets of organs, one for national and the other for local
affairs, each organ being supreme within its own sphere.

3. As to relationship between the executive and legislative branches of the government:

a. Parliamentary government or one in which the state confers upon the
legislature the power to terminate the tenure of office of the real executive.
b. Presidential government or one in which the state makes the executive
constitutionally independent of the legislature as regards his tenure and to a
large extent as regards his polices 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.

C. Concept of Constitution

Meaning of Constitution

In its broad sense, the term constitution refers to the body of rules and principles in accordance
with which the powers of sovereignty are regularly exercised. It covers both written and unwritten
constitutions.

Meaning of Constitution of the Philippines

It may be defined as that written instrument by which the fundamental powers of the
government are established, limited, and defined and by which theses powers are distributed among
the several departments or branches for their safe and useful exercise for the benefit of the people.

Nature and Purpose or Function of Constitution.

1. Serves as the supreme or fundamental law – a constitution is the charter creating the
government. It has the status of the supreme or fundamental law as it speaks for the entire
people from whom it derives its claim to obedience.
2. Established basic framework and underlying principles of government – the constitution is also
referred to as the organic or basic law being or relating to the law by virtue of which the
government exist as such.
 3. Designed to protect the basic rights of the people – the constitution is the primarily designed to
preserve and protect the rights of individuals against the arbitrary actions of those in authority.

Meaning of constitutional law

Constitutional law may be defined as that branch of public law which treats of constitutional,
their nature, formation, amendment, and interpretation.

It refers to the law embodied in the constitution as well as the principles growing out of the
interpretation and application made by the courts of the provisions of the constitution in the specific
cases.

Kinds of Constitution

Constitutions may be classified as follows:

1. As to their origin and history:

a. Conventional or enacted – one which is enacted by a constituent assembly or granted
by a monarch to his subjects like Constitution of Japan; and
b. Cumulative or evolved – like the English Constitution, one which is a product of growth
or a long period of development originating in customs, traditions, judicial decisions,
etc, rather than from a deliberate and formal enactment.
2. As to their form:
a. Written – one which has been given definite written form at a particular time, usually by
a specifically constituted authority called a “constitutional convention”; and
b. Unwritten – one which is entirely the product of political evolution, consisting largely of
a mass of customs, usages and judicial decisions together with a smaller body of
statutory enactments of a fundamental character, usually bearing different dates.
3. As to the manner of amending them:
a. Rigid or inelastic – one regarded as a document of special sanctity which cannot be
amended or altered except by some special machinery more cumbrous than the
ordinary legislative process; and
b. Flexible or elastic – one which possesses no higher legal authority than ordinary laws
and which may be altered in the same way as other laws

Requisite of a good written constitution

1. as to form, a good written constitution should be:

a. Brief – because if a constitution is too detailed, it would lose the advantage of a
fundamental law which in a few provisions outlines the structure of the government of
the whole state and the rights of the citizens
b. Broad – because statement of the powers and functions of the government, and of the
relations between the governing body and the governed, requires that it be as
comprehensive as possible; and
 c. Definite – because otherwise applications of its provisions to concrete situations may
prove unduly difficult if not impossible.
2. As to contents, it should contain at least three (3) sets of provisions:
a. That dealing with the framework of government, its structure and powers, and defining
the electorate.
b. That setting forth the fundamental rights of the people and imposing certain limitations
on the powers of the government as a means of securing the enjoyment of these rights.
c. That pointing out the mode or procedure to amending or revising the constitution.

Constitution distinguished from statute.

Constitution Statute
Is a legislation direct from the people Is a legislation from people’s representative
Merely states the general framework of the law Provides the details of the subject of which it
and the government treats
Intended not only to meet the existing conditions Intended primarily to meet the existing condition
but to govern the future only
Supreme or fundamental law of the state to It must be in accordance with the constitution
which statutes and all other law must conform
 Exercise No. 1

Introduction

A. Define the following terms:

1. Political Science

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2.