The document defines the key elements that characterize a state: 1) A population residing within a fixed territory. There is no minimum or maximum threshold for the size of the population or territory. 2) An organized government that acts as the machinery through which the state exercises its supreme power and performs various functions. 3) Sovereignty, which is the most important characteristic of a state. Sovereignty refers to the state having supreme power and ultimate authority with no entity above it, both internally over its population and externally as an independent entity not under foreign control.

1. State
Defination...
The term state may means condition of health or economic condition. The term is sometimes
loosely used by people to mean states of India, or "the United States of America". Sometimes it
mean 'nation' or 'society' or 'government' or 'country'. These uses of the term are not correct at
all from the scientific point, of view. It has in fact, a specific meaning which is completely
different from its various uses noted above.
Elements
(1) Population...
The most basic characteristic of the state is population. As a human organization the state
cannot be formed without some people. A desert in which human beings do not live cannot be
regarded as a state. However, there is no limit prescribed as to the size of population.
For an ideal state, it should be 5,000 and, Aristotle thinks that it should be 10,000 minimum and
100,000 maximum. In modern times, the maximum and minimum size of population has not
been prescribed. It means that there is no hard and fast rule about the size of the population of
the state.
(2) Territory...
The second characteristic of the state is territory or a fixed geographical area on the earth. In
the absence of a fixed territory, a state cannot be constituted. As for example, the nomadic
tribes like Gipsies and others cannot form a state of their own owing to the absence of a fixed
territory, to reside in.
Similarly, the Jews did not from a state till, they definitely settled down in Israel in 1948. Like
population, there is no limit set for the territory of a state.
(3) Government...
The state must possess an organized Government. It is the machinery through which the state
must exercise its supreme power. It constitutes the brain of the state. A state cannot be thought

2. of without some sort of Government. The state performs its various functions through the
Government.
(4) Sovereignty...
The fourth and the most important element, or characteristic of the state is sovereignty.
Sovereignty means supreme power or ultimate authority against which there can be no appeal.
Externally, the state claims final and absolute authority. It is independent of any foreign control.