A government is the organization An organization is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, controls its own performance, and has a boundary separating it from its environment. The word itself is derived from the Greek word organon, itself derived from the better-known word ergon, or agency through which a political unit exercises its authority, controls and administers public policy Public policy can be generally defined as the course of action or inaction taken by governmental entities with regard to a particular issue or set of issues. Other scholars define it as a system of "courses of action, regulatory measures, laws, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or its, and directs and controls the actions of its members or subjects.[1]

Typically, the term "government" refers to the civil government Civil authority is that apparatus of the State other than its military units that enforces law and order. It is also used to distinguish between religious authority (for example Canon law) and secular authority. In a religious context it may be defined "as synonymous with human government, in contradistinction to a government by God, or the of a sovereign state A sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. While in abstract terms a sovereign state can exist without being recognised by other sovereign states, unrecognised states will often find it hard to which can be either local, national, or international. However, commercial Commerce is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer OR commerce is the exchange of goods and services from the point of production to the point of consumption to satisfy human wants. It comprises the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services,, academic, religious Religion is the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or in general a set of beliefs explaining the existence of and giving meaning to the universe, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs, or other formal organizations are also governed by internal bodies. Such bodies may be called boards of directors A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. The body sometimes has a different name, such as board of trustees, board of governors, board of managers, or executive board. It is often simply referred to as "the board.", managers, or governors A governor is a governing official, usually the executive (at least nominally, to different degrees also politically and administratively) of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state. In federations, a governor may be the title of each appointed or elected politician who governs a constituent state or they may be known as the administration (as in schools) or councils of elders (as in forest). The size of governments can vary by region or purpose.

Growth of an organization advances the complexity In general usage, complexity tends to be used to characterize something with many parts in intricate arrangement. The study of these complex linkages is the main goal of network theory and network science. In science there are at this time a number of approaches to characterizing complexity, many of which are reflected in this article. In a of its government, therefore small towns or small-to-medium privately operated enterprises will have fewer officials than typically larger organizations such as multinational corporations which tend to have multiple interlocking, hierarchical A hierarchy (Greek: hierarchia , from hierarches, "leader of sacred rites") is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another and with only one "neighbor" above and below each of layers of administration and governance. As complexity increases and the nature of governance becomes more complicated, so does the need for formal policies and procedures.

Contents

Types of governments

A color-coded legend of forms of government. Click on map to see the legend. Main article: List of forms of government This article lists forms of government and political systems, according to a series of different ways of categorising them. The systems listed are of course not mutually exclusive, and often have overlapping definitions

Origin

For many thousands of centuries when people were hunter-gatherers A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either. Hunter-gatherers obtain most from gathering rather than hunting; up to 80% of the food is obtained by gathering. The and small scale farmers, humans lived in small communities.

The development of agriculture resulted in ever increasing population densities.[8] David Christian explains how this helped result in states with laws and governments:

As farming populations gathered in denser and larger communities, interactions between different groups increased and the social pressure rose until, in a striking parallel with star formation, new structures suddenly appeared, together with a new level of complexity. Like stars, cities and states reorganize and energize the smaller objects within their gravitational field. —David Christian, p. 245, Maps of Time

The exact moment and place that the erectional phenomenon of human government developed is lost in time; however, history does record the formations of very early governments. About 5,000 years ago, the first small city-states appeared.[8] By the third to second millenniums BC, some of these had developed into larger governed areas: Sumer Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq. It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as the Cradle of Civilization. The Sumerian civilization spanned over 3000 years and began with the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid period (mid 6th millennium BC) through the Uruk period (4th, Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and it developed over the next three millennia. Its history, the Indus Valley Civilization The Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) which was centred mostly in the western part of the Indian Subcontinent and which flourished around the Indus river basin.[n 1] Primarily centered along the Indus and the Punjab region, the civilization extended into the Ghaggar-Hakra River, and the Yellow River Civilization This is a list of Neolithic cultures of China that have been discovered by archaeologists. They are sorted in chronological order from the earliest founding to the latest and are followed by a schematic visualization of these cultures.[9]

States formed as the results of a positive feedback loop where population growth results in increased information exchange which results in innovation which results in increased resources which results in further population growth.[10][11] The role of cities in the feedback loop is important. Cities became the primary conduits for the dramatic increases in information exchange that allowed for large and densely packed populations to form, and because cities concentrated knowledge, they also ended up concentrating power.[12][13] "Increasing population density in farming regions provided the demographic and physical raw materials used to construct the first cities and states, and increasing congestion provided much of the motivation for creating states."[14]

Fundamental purpose

According to supporters of government,the fundamental purpose of government is the maintenance of basic security and public order Social order is a concept used in sociology, history and other social sciences. It refers to a set of linked social structures, social institutions and social practices which conserve, maintain and enforce "normal" ways of relating and behaving.[15] The philosopher Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, remembered today for his work on political philosophy. His 1651 book Leviathan established the foundation for most of Western political philosophy from the perspective of social contract theory figured that people were rational animals and thus saw submission to a government dominated by a sovereign as preferable to anarchy The tumult of the English Civil War led to the term to be taken up in political philosophy.[citation needed] Anarchy was one of the issues at the Putney Debates of 1647:.[16][17] According to Hobbes, people in a community create and submit to government for the purpose of establishing for themselves, safety and public order.[17][18][19][20]

Early examples

These are examples of some of the earliest known states:

Expanded roles

Military defense

The fundamental purpose of government is to maintain social order Social order is a concept used in sociology, history and other social sciences. It refers to a set of linked social structures, social institutions and social practices which conserve, maintain and enforce "normal" ways of relating and behaving and protect property. “Security of person and property, and equal justice between individuals, are the first needs of society, and the primary ends of government: if these things can be left to any responsibility below the highest, there is nothing, except war and treaties, which requires a general government at all.”[23]

Militaries are created to deal with the highly complex task of confronting large numbers of enemies.

Once governments came onto the scene, they began to form and use armies for conflicts with neighboring states, and for conquest of new lands. Governments seek to maintain monopolies on the use of force,[24] and to that end, they usually suppress the development of private armies within their borders.

Social security

Social security is related to economic security. Throughout most of human history, parents prepared for their old age by producing enough children to ensure that some of them would survive long enough to take care of the parents in their old age.[25] In modern, relatively high-income societies, a mixed approach is taken where the government shares a substantial responsibility of taking care of the elderly.[25]

This is not the case everywhere since there are still many countries where social security through having many children is the norm. Although social security is a relatively recent phenomenon, prevalent mostly in developed countries, it deserves mention because the existence of social security substantially changes reproductive behavior in a society, and it has an impact on reducing the cycle of poverty.[25] By reducing the cycle of poverty, government creates a self-reinforcing cycle where people see the government as friend both because of the financial support they receive late in their lives, but also because of the overall reduction in national poverty due to the government's social security policies—which then adds to public support for social security.[26]

Aspects of government

The Parliament of the United Kingdom, the 'Mother of all Parliaments The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. Parliament alone has parliamentary sovereignty and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the United Kingdom and its territories. At its head is the Sovereign, Queen'

Governments vary greatly, as do the relationships of citizens Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities. "Active citizenship" is the philosophy that citizens should work towards the betterment of their community through economic participation, public , volunteer work, and other such efforts to improve life for all citizens. In this vein, of a state to its government.

Abuse of power

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (September 2009)

The leaders of governments are human beings, and given human nature, what constitutes good governance has been a subject written about since the earliest known books. In the western tradition Plato Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Plato was originally a wrote extensively on the question, most notably in The Republic The Republic , by Plato, is a Socratic dialogue about the order and character of the City-State. The dialogues, among Socrates and various Athenians and foreigners, discuss the meaning of justice, and examine whether or not the just man is happier than the unjust man, by proposing a society ruled by philosopher-kings and the guardians; hence the. He (in the voice of Socrates) asked if the purpose of government was to help one's friends and hurt one's enemies, for example. Aristotle, Plato's student picked up the subject in his treatise on Politics. Many centuries later, John Locke addressed the question of abuse of power by writing on the importance of checks and balances[27] to prevent or at least constrain abuse. It is believed that Thomas Jefferson was influenced by John Locke.[28]

Legitimacy

The concept of legitimacy is central to the study of governments. Statists have attempted to formalize ways to legitimize government or state authority.

Social contract theorists, such as Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rosseau, believe that governments reduce people's freedom/rights in exchange for protecting them, and maintaining order. Many people question, however, whether this is an actual exchange (where people voluntarily give up their freedoms), or whether they are taken by threat of force by the ruling party.

Other statist theorists, like David Hume, reject social contract theory on the grounds that, in reality, consent is not involved in state-individual relationships and instead offer different definitions of legitimacy based on practicality and usefulness.

Anarchists, on the other hand, claim that legitimacy for an authority must be consensual and reject the concept of states altogether; For them, authority must be earned, not self-legitimated. For example, a police officer does not earn his authority as a doctor does, because the authority is voluntarily transferred to the doctor while the police officer just takes it.[original research?]

Criticised aspects

War

In the most basic sense, people of one nation will see the government of another nation as the enemy when the two nations are at war.[original research?] For example, the people of Carthage saw the Roman government as the enemy during the Punic wars.[29]

Enslavement

In early human history, the outcome of war for the defeated was often enslavement. The enslaved people would not find it easy to see the conquering government as a friend. However, this is not true in every case.

Religious opposition

People with religious views opposed to the official state religion will have a greater tendency to view that government as their enemy. An example would be the condition of Roman Catholicism in England before the Catholic Emancipation. Protestants—who were politically dominant in England—used political, economic and social means to reduce the size and strength of Catholicism in England over the 16th to 18th centuries, and as a result, Catholics in England felt that their religion was being oppressed.[30] For a contemporary example see Religion in North Korea.

Class oppression

Whereas capitalists in a capitalist country may tend to see that nation's government positively, a class-conscious group of industrial workers—a proletariat—may see things very differently.[original research?] If the proletariat wishes to take control of the nation's productive resources, and they are blocked in their endeavors by continuing adjustments in the law made by capitalists in the government,[31] then the proletariat will come to see the government as their enemy—especially if the conflicts become violent.

The same situation can occur among peasants. The peasants in a country, e.g. Russia during the reign of Catherine the Great, may revolt against their landlords, only to find that their revolution is put down by government.[original research?]

Anarchism / Libertarian socialism

See also: Anarchism and Libertarian socialism

Anarchists and libertarian socialists are opposed to the state as a form of government, and to hierarchical social structures in general. Anarchists believe that explicit consent is necessary for legitimacy within a collective group or government. There are many forms of anarchist theories. Some anarchists, such as anarcho-syndicalists or anarcho-primitivists, advocate egalitarianism and non-hierarchical societies while others, such as anarcho-capitalists, advocate free markets and individual sovereignty.

See also

Levels of civil government:

Notes

  1. ^ Dictionary.reference.com, cites 3 separate dictionaries
  2. ^ Fotopoulos, Takis, The Multidimensional Crisis and Inclusive Democracy. (Athens: Gordios, 2005).(English translation of the book with the same title published in Greek).
  3. ^ "Victorian Electronic Democracy : Glossary". July 28, 2005. http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/SARC/E-Democracy/Final_Report/Glossary.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  4. ^ American 503
  5. ^ American 1134
  6. ^ American 1225
  7. ^ American 1793
  8. ^ a b Christian 245
  9. ^ a b c d e Christian 294
  10. ^ Christian 253
  11. ^ Most of this sentence is in the present tense because the process is still ongoing.
  12. ^ Christian 271
  13. ^ The concept of the city itself became a self-reinforcing cycle. "The creation of such large and dense communities required new forms of power", and since cities concentrate power, the new (sovereign) rulers had incentives to build and expand cities to further increase their power.(Christian 271,321)
  14. ^ Christian 248
  15. ^ Schulze 81
  16. ^ Dietz 68
  17. ^ a b Social Contract Theory
  18. ^ Dietz 65-66
  19. ^ Hobbes idea of the necessity of the formation of government is known as the social contract theory.
  20. ^ The field of study and thought about the necessity of governments and governments' relationships with people is known as political philosophy.
  21. ^ Higham, "Indus Valley Civilization"
  22. ^ Haas, Jonathan; Winifred Creamer, Alvaro Ruiz (23 December 2004). "Dating the Late Archaic occupation of the Norte Chico region in Peru". Nature 432 (7020): 1020–1023. doi:10.1038/nature03146. PMID 15616561.
  23. ^ John Stuart Mill in Representative Government, 1861
  24. ^ Adler 80-81
  25. ^ a b c Nebel 165-166
  26. ^ Bruce Bartlett. Social Security Then and Now. COMMENTARY. March 2005, Vol. 119, No. 3, pp. 52-56. In the online version on paragraph 13 it suggests that, During the Great Depression, Roosevelt wanted to suppress revolutionary tendencies by tying workers to the state—hence a state-run social security system. Also read the paragraphs above where it talks about populist demagogues and socialist revolutions in other countries. Tying workers to the state through social security was a politically strategic move designed to preserve the United States of America and its democracy.
  27. ^ Thefreemanonline.org
  28. ^ Stanford.edu
  29. ^ E.L. Skip Knox. "The Punic Wars". Department of History, Boise State University. http://history.boisestate.edu/WESTCIV/punicwar/. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  30. ^ "Catholic Encyclopedia: England (Since the Reformation)". Newadvent.org. 1913. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05445a.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  31. ^ Christian 358

References

  • Kenoyer, J. M. Ancient Cities of the Indus Civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998
  • Possehl, Gregory L. Harappan Civilization: A Recent Perspective. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993
  • Indus Age: The Writing System. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996
  • “Revolution in the Urban Revolution: The Emergence of Indus Urbanisation,” Annual Review of Anthropology 19 (1990): 261–282.

External links

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Asked by tgray10000 - Wed Oct 31 10:43:09 2007 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments

A. Not always. In fact, having the system of federalism allowed civil rights activists to file federal lawsuits (such as brown versus board of education) because they knew that filing state lawsuits would never get them anywhere. On the other hand, state government has a hand in much of the governance that touches individuals on an every day basis such as policing, local government, roads etc.
Answered by manx l - Wed Oct 31 14:19:14 2007

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