Which one of the following best defines the term 'State?

1. A

   A community of persons permanently occupying a definite territory independent of external control and possessing an organized government

   People + territory + government + sovereignty (independent of external control). The textbook four-element State.

2. B

   A politically organized people of a definite territory and possessing an authority to govern them, maintain law and order, protect their natural rights and safeguard their means of sustenance

   Adds natural rights and sustenance — a political-theory overlay, not the spare definition.

3. C

   A number of persons who have been living in a definite territory for a very long time with their own culture, tradition and government

   Culture and tradition without sovereignty.

4. D

   A society permanently living in a definite territory with a central authority, an executive responsible to the central authority and an independent judiciary

   Requires an independent judiciary — a liberal constitution, not every State.

Summary. Official key is (a). In political science a State is a permanent community on a definite territory, with an organised government, independent of external control. Extra talk of natural rights or an independent judiciary is not that definition.