The Concept of the State — Meaning and Definition

Every form you have ever filled in Mumbai asks for your “State” — you write Maharashtra. Political science disagrees with your form. Maharashtra is not a State at all; it has no army, cannot declare war, and cannot leave India whenever it likes. India is the State. Once you see why the word means something so much narrower than everyday usage suggests, the whole of this module opens up.

In two minutes

A State is a group of people permanently settled on a fixed territory, organised under a government, and possessing sovereignty — supreme authority that answers to no one outside itself.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Political Science – I: Political Theory and Political Organisation on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.