Define What Constitutes the Sovereign State Flashcards

The legal and political authority of a territory containing a population and marked by borders. The state defines the political authority of which government is the managing authority; that authority is regarded as both sovereign and legitimate by the citizens of the state and the governments of other states.

The ultimate source of authority in a society. The sovereign is the highest and final decision-maker within a community.

A full member of a state, entitled to the rights and subject to the duties associated with that status. Citizenship is typically confirmed in a document such as a passport or identity card.

The modern state system that many believe emerged out of the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, based on the sovereignty of states and political self-determination.

Those rights (such as to life, liberty and property) supposedly given to humans by God or by nature, their existence taken to be independent of government.

War requiring the mobilization of the population to support a conflict fought with advanced weaponry on a large geographical scale, requiring state leadership, intervention and funding.

An arrangement in which the government is primarily responsible for the social and economic security of its citizens through public programmes such as incomes for the unemployed, pensions for the elderly and medical care for the sick.

States that are small in both population and territory. Andorra, Barbados, Palau and the Maldives are examples.

States that exist and are recognized under international law but whose governments control little of the territory under their jurisdiction.

States that are not recognized under international law even though they control territory and provide governance. They exist in fact (de facto) rather than under law (de jure).

A cultural and historical concept describing a group of people who identify with one another on the basis of a shared history, culture, language, and myths.

The ability to act without external compulsion. The right of national self-determination is the right of a people to possess its own government, democratic or otherwise.

The belief that a group of people with a common national identity (usually marked by a shared culture and history) has the right to form an independent state and to govern itself free of external intervention.

A population that lives over an extended area outside its geographical or ethnic homeland.

A sovereign political association whose citizens share a common national identity.