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Chapter: 11th 12th std standard Political Science History goverment rule laws life Higher secondary school College Notes

Meaning And Definition Of Constituion

Every state must have a constitution. Without a constitution it is difficult to govern a state.

CONSTITUTION  

INTRODUCTION:

 
Every state must have a constitution. Without a constitution it is difficult to govern a state. History tells that since the origin of the state there had been some kinds of rules and regulations in some form to maintain the order and harmony in the state.
 
In every state be it a democratic or despotic it is essential that such rules must be accepted which would decide the role and organization of political institutions in order to save the society from anarchy. In modern states these rules find expression in the form of a constitution.
 

MEANING AND DEFINITION OF CONSTITUION:

 
A constitution is a basic design, which deals with the structure and powers of the government. It also includes rights and duties of citizens. Very often 'constitution' is understood as a document which has been written and accepted at a particular time, but this is not the true meaning of constitution, constitution may be written or may be unwritten.
 
Sometimes it is found in an established body of rules, maxims, traditions and practices in accordance with which its government is organized and its powers and exercised. Many political thinkers have tried to define the term 'constitution'.
 
For Aristotle 'constitution is the way in which, citizens who are the component parts of the state are arranged in relation to one another'.
 
According to Woolsey, a constitution 'the collection of principal according to which he powers of the government rights of the government and relations between the two are adjusted.'

Bryce defines it as 'the aggregate of laws and customs under which the life of state goes on the complex totality of laws embodying the principles and rules whereby the community is organized, governed and held together'.
 
Herman Finer says, - 'the state is a human grouping in which rules a certain power relationship between its individuals and associated constituents. This power relationship is embodied in political institutions. The system of fundamental political institutions is the constitution the autobiography of the power relationship.'
 
A constitution is according to legal dictionary definition 'is a frame of political society organized through and by law'.
 
Bouncier defines a constitution as 'the fundamental law of a state directing the principles upon which the government is founded and regulating the exercise of the sovereign powers, directly to what bodies of persons thee powers shall be confined and the manner of their exercise.
 
George Cornewell Lewis describes the constitution as ' the arrangement and distribution of sovereign power in the community or the form of the government'.
 
Charles Baregeaud says - 'A constitution is the fundamental law according to which the relations of individuals or normal persons to the community are determined.
 
It may be a written instrument, a precise text or series of text enacted at a given time by a sovereign power or it may be the more or less definite results of a series of legislative acts, ordinances, judicial decisions, precedents and customs of diverse origin and of unequal and importance'.
 
Sir James Mackintosh says 'By the constitution of a state, i mean the body of those written or unwritten fundamental laws which regulate the most important rights of the higher magistrates the most essential privileges of the subjects.
 
According to Leacock - 'constitution is the form of government'. Austin has defined constitution saying, 'that it
fixes the structure of supreme government.'On the basis of above definitions we can say that a constitution is

1.     The fundamental law of the land
 
2.     May be written or unwritten
 
3.     Deals with the composition and power of the government.
 
4.     Deals with the rights of citizens.
 
5.     Deals with the relationship between the government and governed.
 

6.     It is supreme law that must be followed?


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