We explain what and what the elements of the State are, the characteristics of each one and why they are important.
What are the elements of the State?
In legal theory, elements of the State or constitutive elements of the State are understood as the set of factors that traditionally must be present for a State to exist, that is, to are the factors that allow the existence of a State.
Going to the basics, a State is a political institution that emerged to guarantee the satisfaction of the collective needs of justice, organization and leadership, through an imposed legal system, that is, a law. For this to be possible, certain fundamental conditions must be met, given that not every human community is equivalent to a State.
The classification of these elements often varies in political and legal studies, but fundamentally they are reduced to three:
- The population. There are no States without populations, that is, without their own citizens, whether they are children, adults or the elderly. This sense of belonging and identification is key to the existence of the State, because from this, nationals can be distinguished from foreigners, what is their own and what is foreign. Often in specialized language the State (institutions and laws) is distinguished from the people and their culture (the nation).
- The territory. For a State to exist, it must have its own territory to administer, that is, a portion of the planet's surface that belongs to it and is under its absolute domain, where the majority of its population resides. This territory is delimited by the country's borders, which separate its territory from that of its neighbors, and within which the only valid law is the law of the State. The waters that flow through it (rivers, lakes, lagoons and seas to a certain extent) and the natural resources of all kinds that are present in it form part of the territory.
- power or sovereignty. Finally, a State does not exist if it is not sovereign, that is, if it does not have the authority to administer its territory at will, and if it does not have the institutions to autonomously and freely exercise its roles of justice, leadership and organization. social and political. The sovereignty of States is, in principle, inviolable, and any interference by external powers can be considered a reason for war; which is why international conflicts are settled according to international laws and institutions mutually agreed upon by nations. In other words, there are no States without a government, without institutions and without political power in their hands.
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References
- “Elements of the State” in the Civic Training Guide of the Library of the National Congress of Chile.
- “State” in the Legislative Information System of the Government of Mexico.
- “Elements of the State” by Araceli Reyes and Maura Reyes, at the Autonomous University of the State of Hidalgo (Mexico).
- “Elements of the State” at the Las Américas Study Center.
