What a state is

The first chapter, and the one whose definitions the paper returns to every year.

The four elements of a state

1. Population — people. No fixed number, but there must be enough to sustain a political community.
2. Territory — a defined area, including land, water and airspace.
3. Government — the machinery through which the state acts.
4. Sovereignty — supreme power, internal and external. This is the element that distinguishes a state from everything else, and it is the one the examiner is testing.

State and government are not the same

State	Government
Permanent	Temporary — it changes with elections
Abstract	Concrete — you can name the people in it
Has sovereignty	Exercises sovereignty on the state's behalf
All citizens are members	Only some citizens are part of it

This distinction is a five-mark question in most years. Learn the table.

Also not the same

Society is wider than the state and has no sovereignty. Nation is a people united by common feeling — culture, language, history. A nation may exist without a state, and a state may contain several nations.