Understanding State Structure, Political Regimes, and Sovereignty

State Definition

A state encompasses all organs of government within a sovereign country.

Political Regimes and State Forms

A community is organized as a state when it possesses a territory, a population, and the autonomy to legislate and enforce laws. Depending on the state form, it can be:

• Monarchy: The head of state is a monarch who assumes office through inheritance.
• Republic: The head of state is a president.

According to its political regime, the government of a state may be:

• Democratic: Sovereignty resides in the people, who choose or change their rulers.
• Authoritarian or Dictatorial: A tyrant or a single party holds power and rules without respecting the popular will.

Division of Powers

The organization of power in democratic states is based on the principle of the separation of powers:

• Legislative Branch: Resides in Parliament; responsible for drafting laws and executive control.
• Executive Power: Lies in the government; responsible for enforcing laws and directing the management and defense of the state.
• Judiciary: Resides in the courts; responsible for ensuring compliance with laws, punishing violations, and controlling acts of Parliament and government decisions to ensure they align with constitutional standards.

Sovereignty

Formerly, sovereignty belonged to the monarch. With the advent of democracy, it is considered that sovereignty resides in the people, who transfer power to the state. Furthermore, when we describe a state as sovereign, we mean it possesses the right to independence, meaning other states have no authority to meddle in its internal affairs.

Political Power

Political power involves the management of public affairs, the state government, and its institutions through political channels such as the government, parliament, judiciary, and local authorities.

• Legal Power: Accessed and exercised in compliance with the laws of a state.
• Legitimate Power: Exists only if laws and election procedures respect the rights of all and are governed by ethical standards.

Tolerance

Tolerance is a democratic virtue that applies to matters not affecting fundamental values. It emerged in Europe during the religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Article 1 of the Spanish Constitution

1. Spain is established as a social and democratic state of law, which upholds freedom, justice, equality, and political pluralism as superior values of its legal system.
2. National sovereignty resides in the Spanish people, from whom the powers of the state emanate.
3. The political form of the Spanish state is the parliamentary monarchy.