STATES

Now I am going to talk about the states:

• Definition.
• Territory and population.
• Goverment and laws.
• And its powers.

A state is a political unit with supreme authority over a territory and its inhabitants. It has:

• Recognized boundaries.
• Permanent population and laws.
• Identifying symbols (flag, capital, a national anthem and currency).

Territory and population

The boundaries (or borders) separate the state from other states. A state can not act outside their borders. The borders can change throughout the time.

The populations are the citizens nationalised in the country. They are not always homogeneus.

A nation is a group of people with the same ideas, culture, language...

Goverment and laws

States guarantee certain fundamental rights to their citizens, but citizens also have legal duties that are cumpulsory to achieve.

When a state is democratic all the citizens are free, but in other states they give more importance to certain groups of people (with a certain ethnicity or religion)

powers of the state

The state issues laws to govern its territory (they have to be obeyed by all the people, indiviuals, companies, NGO's...)

To enforce decisions the states have created institutions (a state can impose its laws by force):

• Police: maintain order.
• Armed forces: defend the state.
• Diplomatic corps: international relationships.
• Public officials and civil servants: carry out polices.

mind map of the ecnomy