Government And Philippine Constitution

FUNCTION OF POLITICAL SCIENCE • to discover the principles that should be adhered to in public affairs • to study the operations of government in order to demonstrate what is good, to criticize what is bad or inefficient, and to suggest improvements IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE • useful to constitution-makers, legislators, executives and judges who need models or norms that can be applied to immediate situations • useful to individuals who seek to understand the state in which they live GOALS IN THE STUDY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE COURSES • Education for Citizenship • Essential parts of liberal education • Knowledge and understanding of government Government, political organization comprising the individuals and institutions authorized to formulate public policies and conduct affairs of state. State -A community of persons, more or less numerous, permanently occupying a fixed territory and possessed of an independent government organised for political ends to which the great body of inhabitants render habitual obedience. ELEMENTS OF STATE 1. •

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PEOPLE inhabitants of the state Community of persons sufficient in no. & capable of maintaining the continued existence of the community & held together by a common bond of law Doesn’t matter if they possess diverse racial, cultural or economic interests

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GOVERNMENT a. The agency or instrumentality, through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed and realized. b. the institution or aggregate of institutions by which an independent society makes and carries out those rules of action which are necessary to enable men to live in a social State, or which are imposed upon the people forming that society by those who possess the power or authority of prescribing them.

3. TERRITORY-fixed portion of the surface of the earth, inhabited by the people of the state. The territory must not be too small as to be unable to provide for the needs of the people; nor should it be too large as to be difficult to administer. The territory can extend to over a vast expanse, like China or Russia, or be as small as Abu Dhabi.

spontaneously rationally and voluntarily gave up their individual sovereignties and united with other communities to form a larger political unit deserving to be called a state.

a. "automatic" theory. According to this theory, the invention of agriculture automatically brought into being a surplus of food, enabling some individuals to divorce themselves from food production and to become potters, weavers, smiths, masons, and so on, thus creating an extensive division of labor.

2. Coercive Theories A close examination of history indicates that only a coercive theory can account for the rise of the state. Force and not enlightened self-interest. is the mechanism by which political evolution has led. step by step, from autonomous villages to the state.

COMPONENTS OF TERRITORY

a. terrestrial domain-the land mass maritime or fluvial domain-inland and external waters aerial domain- the air space above the land and water. 4. SOVEREIGNTY • means the supreme, uncontrollable power, the absolute right to govern. • The supreme will of the State, the power to make laws, and enforce them by all the means of coercion it cares to employ. • Legal sovereignty: power to adapt/alter the constitution or supreme power to make laws vs. Political sovereignty: sum total of all the influences in a state, legal & non-legal w/c determine the course of law THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF STATE

1. Voluntaristic theories said that at some point in their history, certain peoples

3. Social contract theory provides the rationale behind the historically important notion that legitimate state authority must be derived from the consent of the governed. STATE, AS DISTINGUISHED FROM NATION The state pertains to a legal concept, while the nation refers to a racial or ethnic concept. …AS DISTINGUISHED FROM GOVERNMENT The government is only an element of the state. The government is an agent, and the State is the principal. The government externalizes the will of the State. FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT The government performs two constituent and the ministrant.

functions—the

1. CONSTITUENT-constitute the bonds of society. Constituent functions consist of fixing of legal relations between husband and wife, parents and children; keeping of order and providing protection from violence; regulation of the holding, transmission and interchange of property; determination of liabilities for debt or crime; determination of contractual rights between individuals; definition and punishment of crimes, administration of justice in civil cases; administration of political duties, privileges, and relations of citizens, and dealings of the state with foreign powers, preservation of state from external dangers, and the advancement of international interests. 2. MINISTRANT functions-are those taken to advance the general interests of society— such as public works, public charity, regulation of trade and industry. FORMS OF GOVERNMENT: DE Jure and De Facto governments A de jure government has rightful title but no power or control, because it may have been withdrawn or it has not yet actually entered into exercise. On the other hand, a de facto government is a government of fact—it actually exercises power or control, but has no legal title. WHAT IS A CONSTITUTION? •

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A Constitution is the fundamental organic law of a State which contains the principles on which the government is founded and regulates the division and exercise of sovereign powers. A body of rules and maxims in accordance with which the powers of sovereignty are habitually exercised.

THE SUPREMACY OF THE CONSTITUTION The Constitution is the most basic and most paramount law to which all other laws must conform and to which all persons including the higher officials of the land must defer. No act shall be valid however noble its intentions if it is in conflict with the Constitution. The Constitution must reign supreme. IMPORTANCE, NATURE AND PURPOSE OF CONSTITUTION

1. The people exercise d control of their government primarily through the Constitution which protects from unjust exercise of governmental power and through periodic elections by means of which they choose the officers to represent them. 2. A constitution is the supreme or fundamental law creating the government having been enacted by the people themselves. 3. The purpose of the constitution is to draw framework or general outline of the system of the government and to specific the respective powers and functions of the various branches of government comprising this framework. KINDS/CLASSIFICATION of CONSTITUTION As to their origin and history • Conventional or enacted one which is enacted by a constituent assembly or granted by a monarch to his subjects • Cumulative or evolved-one which is the product of growth or a long period of development originating in customs, traditions, judicial decisions rather than from deliberate and formal enactment As to their form: • Written-one which has been given definite written form at a particular time usually by a specially constituted authority called constitutional convention

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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

As to manner of amending them: • Rigid or inelastic-one regarded as a document of a special sanctity which cannot be amended or altered except by some special machinery more cumbrous than the ordinary legislative process. • Flexible or elastic-one which possess no higher legal authority than ordinary laws and which may be altered in the same way as other laws. CONSTIUTUTION DISTINGUISHED FORM STATUTE 1. 2.

A constitution is a law give \n directly by the people while a statute is enacted by the people’s representative A constitution is the fundamental law of the state on which all other laws or statute are based

BASIC PRINCIPLES CONSTITUTION • • •

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UNDERLYING

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Recognition of the Almighty God Sovereignity of the people Supremacy of civilian authority over the military Separation of Church and State Guarantee of human rights Government through suffrage Separation of powers Independence of the judiciary Rule of the majority Government of laws and not of men