State Elements: Territory and Population Defined
Territory: The Physical Element of the State
Territory is the “physical element” of the state, its material support. This is a portion of land area (the “floor”) and the area of airspace that belongs to it under the laws of international law. It also includes the subsoil, inland waters, rivers and seas, as well as warships, aircraft, and diplomatic missions abroad.
The territory is defined by three characteristics:
- Unity: The territory is one from a political point of view, but it does not necessarily have to be a material or physical continuity.
- Inalienability: The territory is not likely to be partitioned or transferred, nor any of its component parts (a reaction against the patrimonial conception of the past).
- Exclusivity: This has to do with sovereignty. Only the state has authority or jurisdiction over its territory, excluding any interference in it.
Territory and State: An Intertwined Relationship
The relationship between territory and state has historically led to important discussions in political doctrine. Two different interpretations have emerged when considering whether the territory conditions the political organization of the state. The first, a deterministic solution, regarded the state as a political form absolutely influenced by territorial form (this theory is now outdated). The second, a relativistic answer, suggests that there is no logical determinism but rather influences.
Among the geographic factors that influence the state are:
- The country’s natural wealth: This determines the level of economic development of states.
- The shape of the territory: This includes the extension (states are large, medium, and small), the geographical condition (island countries, continental, and peninsular), and horizontal or vertical configuration (there are countries in plain or plain and mountainous countries).
- The weather.
People: The Human Basis of the State
People are the human basis of the state. An initial concept might be: the set of individuals who are under state jurisdiction. However, it is important to distinguish between three concepts: population, people, and nation.
Population: A Statistical Perspective
When using the term “population,” it is usually done with a mathematical or statistical sense. Population here means the sum of all the individuals who compose the nation. Numeric data is useful to quantify, measure, and classify the human component of the state. From this point of view, it relates to other concepts that also have a political impact, including: census, the population of fact and law, birth rate, mortality, etc.
People: Beyond Statistics
The concept of “people,” however, goes beyond the simple statistical fact. It suggests the existence of other components, much harder to pin down, such as cultural unity, common historical roots, identification with the territory (place of origin and vital reference), a set of customs, traditions, religious beliefs more or less homogeneous, and the feeling of belonging to a community and its corresponding style or way of life.
Nation: Shared Destiny and Political Vocation
For most authors, the concept of “nation” means, in addition to the above, or supplementing it, the existence of a consciousness of common destiny and a certain political vocation. In this sense, the Royal Academy Dictionary defines the nation as a “community of nations to which certain unity of territory, history, race, language, religion, and traditions, gives them a consciousness of common destiny.”
Typically, the nation presupposes the existence of a “people” or natural community of people united by ties of culture, history, religion, etc. The next step, of course after the first element, is the sentiment, widely shared, to live together with minimal legal and institutional organization. The nation is the natural foundation for establishing the state, although it is true that it can be grouped under their sovereignty is not one but two or more different nations, the result of such a form of state group: the multinational state.