Who among us does not know what a state is?!
If you are among those who are keen on hearing political news, you probably hear the word "state" dozens of times a day. You live in a state whose name you know well, hold affection and loyalty for, owe allegiance to, and are ready to sacrifice yourself for... You, therefore, know the state with a certainty that admits no doubt.
And surely you have not found any difficulty in understanding news broadcasts and political analyses simply because you did not understand the word "state" which is repeatedly mentioned in the news broadcast!
And you did not feel the need to ask about the meaning of the state, or the need to refer to dictionaries, lexicons, and the writings of specialists to know what the state is!!
But... if you were asked to provide a scientific and legal definition of the state, would you be able to do so? Have you ever encountered scientific definitions of the state agreed upon by scholars?
So... what is the state?
The Concept of the State
First: The state in linguistic terms:
Daala yaqool, dawlan and dawlatan, meaning: it turned, revolved, shifted from one state to another, and "daalat lahu al-dawlah" means: it became his. It is also said "daalat ala al-qawm", meaning it turned against them, as in the Almighty's saying, "And those days [of varying conditions] We alternate among the people" (Surah Ali 'Imran, Verse 140), meaning We make them for these people one time and for those another. "Al-dawlah" (with a dammah on the dal) means something circulated, as in the Almighty's saying, "What Allah restored to His Messenger from the people of the towns - [it] is for Allah and for the Messenger and for [his] near relatives and orphans and the needy and the traveler, so that it will not be a constant distribution among the rich among you. And whatever the Messenger has given you, take it; and whatever he has forbidden you, refrain from it. And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is severe in penalty" (Surah Al-Hashr, Verse 7).
As for European languages, the word "State" in English and "État" in French refer to the concept of status (as in a social status), generally indicating meaning of stability, stillness, and constancy, contrary to the concept of the state in the Arabic language, which points to the concept of change, transformation, and dynamism.
Second: The state idiomatically:
Scholars have differed significantly regarding the definition of the state from an idiomatic perspective, as each of them viewed the state from a different angle, which led to the emergence of a countless number of definitions. For example, Niccolò Machiavelli, who is said to have been the first to use the term "state," defined it as "all the forces that can exercise power over individuals, and they are either republics or principalities."
The Swiss philosopher Bluntschli defined it as "a community of individuals living permanently on a single land, between whom there is a ruling class and a ruled class." The French jurist Barthélemy defined it as "an organized society, subject to a political authority, and tied to a specific territory," which is close to George Washington's definition of the state as "an organized people, subject to the law, inhabiting a specific land."
Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Mahmoud Khairy Issa defined it as "a group of individuals residing permanently in a specific territory, controlled by an organized body that people have agreed to call the government."
Based on the preceding definitions and others concerning the state that space does not permit to list entirely, it can be said that the state is a human group in considerable numbers living permanently in a specific territory, subject to a ruling political authority that organizes their affairs.
Second: The elements of the state:
Scholars and thinkers have failed to agree on a unified legal definition of the state, but they have agreed on the main elements that comprise it, which are: the human community, the specific territory, the ruling authority, and sovereignty. In the coming pages, we will examine these four elements in some detail.
First: The human community:
First: The human community:
It is called by several names such as: the people, the population, the citizens. It is the human community—the most important pillar of the state—because it is impossible to conceive the existence of a state without a population. Despite this, there is no agreement on a minimum population required for the establishment of a state, but the recognized norm is that the number should be "appropriate" to manage the state's affairs.
However, it is common that the larger a state's population, the greater its power and, consequently, its external standing and position among nations. The clearest examples of large countries in terms of population are China, Russia, and the United States, where the population of each reaches hundreds of millions, and China's population exceeds one billion. All of these mentioned countries are superpowers and pivotal states in the international system.
Yet, some emphasize that an increase in population does not automatically and solely lead to a state's power; rather, certain conditions must be met for a large population to have a positive impact, including:
The proportion of the population to the natural resources available within the state.
The productive capacity of citizens such that the yield of their production is greater than their consumption.
The presence of a reasonable degree of social harmony and cohesion among citizens, along with a desire for co-existence.
Sociologists and political scientists state that the ideal situation is the nation-state, which is characterized by the unity of the population's ethnic origin, religion, language, and interests, in addition to a shared history, common hopes, and a desire to live together.
However, this ideal situation, which scientists and thinkers have long spoken of, has rarely been realized in practice. Studies conducted in the early 1970s indicated that homogeneous countries do not greatly exceed 9% of the total countries in the world.
In fact, population homogeneity is not a prerequisite for the establishment of a state. Whether a state is characterized by unity in ethnic and cultural aspects or by pluralism in these aspects, the individuals of the state are bound by a political and legal tie, and the relationship among them is based on citizenship.
Second: The specified territory:
Second: The specified territory:
Nor is it possible to speak of a state without a territory for this state where its population resides permanently, and within whose scope the state exercises its sovereignty.
Just as a specific number of people is not required for the establishment of a state, a specific area is not required for the state's territory; rather, it is only required that the territory be sufficient for the population to reside in. A state's area may be vast, like Russia, Canada, the United States, and China, or small, like the Vatican and Monaco. Likewise, it is not required for the state's lands to be contiguous, as there are some countries whose lands are not connected in a single unit, such as Britain, Malaysia, Indonesia, and others.
The state's territory includes the following:
The terrestrial territory:
It refers to the patch of dry land upon which the population resides, and this territory must have clear boundaries that separate it from the territories of other states. These boundaries can be natural, such as mountains, seas, and oceans, or artificial, such as barbed wire, walls, and watchtowers, and they can also be defined by imaginary lines.
The maritime territory:
In addition to the terrestrial territory, the state's territory includes the rivers and lakes located within its borders. If a river flows between more than one state, its waters are distributed among the concerned states pursuant to an agreement or treaty, and each state-in that case-shall have a share of the water of this river.
In addition to this, the state's ownership and sovereignty extend to include a portion of the seas adjacent to its borders up to a certain limit, and this area is called the territorial sea. Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states the following:
A- The sovereignty of a coastal State extends, beyond its land territory and internal waters or, in the case of an archipelagic State, its archipelagic waters, to an adjacent belt of sea described as the territorial sea.
B- This sovereignty extends to the air space over the territorial sea as well as to its bed and subsoil.
Article 3 of the Convention also states that "Every State has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles." As for the remaining waters—after coastal States determine the limits of their territorial waters—they become part of the high seas.
The scope of the state's sovereignty over its territorial sea includes sovereignty over the seabed to an infinite depth, and it also includes sovereignty over the air and atmospheric layers extending above its surface to an infinite height.
However, international custom has established that territorial seas are open for the passage of ships of all states, as long as their passage is innocent, which is termed "innocent passage." The elements of innocence are three: not harming the peace, not harming good order, and not harming the security of the coastal state, matters whose assessment is left to the authorities of the coastal state.
The airspace:
It refers to the space overlying the state's two territories: the terrestrial and the maritime. The state has the right to exercise its powers and authorities over this part. There are different trends among international law jurists regarding the state's sovereignty over the airspace and the extent of this territory. One group believes that the airspace (no matter how high it goes) is part of the state's property and it has the right to dispose of it freely. A second group sees the necessity of defining the states' airspace such that anything above it would be public property, much like the high seas. A third group believes that the airspace should be subject to the state's sovereignty, and states must respect the rules of innocent passage.
The importance of the airspace has increased recently due to the massive progress in the field of utilizing airspace via aircraft, spacecraft, and satellites, which has necessitated numerous conferences to facilitate air navigation and space utilization.
Third: The government:
The third element of the state is the ruling authority, as the mere existence of a population residing in a certain territory is not enough for a state to emerge. Rather, there must be a ruling authority to which individuals in this territory are subject, keeping in mind that modern jurisprudence emphasizes that this authority must be based on the consent of individuals, or what is called popular consent.
However, it should be noted that popular consent and the establishment of the ruling authority on its basis do not mean depriving the authority of the right to use coercive instruments to enforce order within the state, because force is an unavoidable necessity for the state to exercise its authority. Authority has passed through stages starting with personalized authority—meaning authority associated with the person of the ruler as the origin and basis of power—to modern institutional authority, which separates power on one hand from the practitioner of this power on the other.
According to legal jurisprudence, the ruling authority is divided into: the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch, which are called the public powers. Based on the criterion of the relationship among these three branches, liberal systems of government are divided into four main types: the presidential system of government, as exemplified by the United States of America; the parliamentary system of government, as exemplified by the United Kingdom; the semi-presidential (mixed) system (which combines features of both parliamentary and presidential systems), as is the case in France; and the assembly-independent system of government, as embodied in the Swiss system.
Furthermore, the form of government does not alter its essence as an authority; it may be central or decentralized, monarchical or republican, dictatorial or democratic, yet it remains in all cases a ruling authority.
Among the most important characteristics of political authority are the following:
It is a public authority that encompasses all human activities within the state, whether economic, social, cultural, scientific, or educational, provided that the extent of state intervention in these activities depends on the philosophy pursued by the government itself.
It controls the entire territory of the state and is supreme over all other authorities in society.
It holds a monopoly—alone—on physical force and the right to use it against outlaws domestically and to confront external aggressors.
It is the only authority authorized to enact laws and legislation that achieve the public interest in the state.
It is the sole authority authorized to deal with other states, international and regional organizations, conclude agreements and treaties with them, and establish diplomatic and consular relations.
It is a national authority stemming from the existence of the state and expressing the independent will of the state.
Fourth: Sovereignty:
In addition to the three previous elements, legal jurists added a fourth element, which is sovereignty. Sovereignty means the supreme authority free from any internal or external control, and sovereignty has two aspects:
A/ Internal sovereignty: meaning the state's absolute authority over all individuals and groups within its borders.
B/ External sovereignty: meaning the state's independence from any external control and its right to diplomatic representation and membership in international and regional organizations.
Among the characteristics of sovereignty are that it is:
- Independent and unrelated to the will of others.
- Permanent with the continuation of the state and inherent to it.
- Indivisible and non-partitionable.
- Comprehensive of the entire territory and people, except for what is excluded therefrom pursuant to treaties, such as diplomatic missions and employees of international organizations.
- It cannot be waived to any state except in the case of union or joining another state.
- An original sovereignty that does not derive from another sovereignty abroad.
- Supreme and superior to all authorities.
- Recognized by other states, in whole or in part.
- It is relative and not absolute due to states' ties with each other through alliances and agreements, and participation in international and regional organizations.
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