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. 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
2. 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.
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
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.
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 functions—the
constituent and the ministrant.
 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?
• 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
• 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. A constitution is a law give \n directly
by the people while a statute is enacted
by the people’s representative
2. A constitution is the fundamental law of
the state on which all other laws or
statute are based
BASIC PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING OUR
CONSTITUTION
• 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

PURPOSE OF THE CONSTITUTION
The purpose of the Constitution is to:
(a) enable the Council to provide clear
leadership to the community in
promoting their environmental, economic
and social well being, in
partnership with citizens, businesses and
other organisations;
(h) provide a means of improving the
delivery of services to the community.
Constitution is widely classified into two
categories.
1. Written & unwritten.
2. Rigid & Flexible.
Written & unwritten
ordinary law making procedure is called
Flexible Constitution. Ordinary law making
procedure means, making law by simple
majority.
British Constitution is flexible constitution.
On the other hand the constitution which
can not be amended by ordinary law
making
process, need two-third majority for
amended Constitution

(b) support the active involvement of
citizens in the process of local authority
decision-making;
(c) help councillors represent their
constituents more effectively;
(d) enable decisions to be taken efficiently
and effectively;
(e) create a powerful and effective means of
holding decision-makers to
account;
(f) ensure that no-one will review or
scrutinise a decision in which they were
directly involved;
(g) ensure that those responsible for
decision-making are clearly identifiable
to local people and that they explain the
reasons for decisions; and
Written Constitution is one which the
fundamental principles concerning state
administration are embodied and which
has, as a specific document, been passed
by
a specific body.
U.S Constitution, Indian Constitution and
Bangladesh Constitution are Written
Constitution.
On the other hand, where the constitution
has not been passed formally as a
specific document by a specific body and
the fundamental principles concerning
state administration exist in political
customs, judicial decisions and in some
scattered documents, the constitution is
unwritten one.
British Constitution is great example for
unwritten constitution.
Rigid & Flexible
The distinction between Rigid and Flexible
Constitution rests upon the method by
which the constitution may be changed.
The Constitution which can be amended
by