From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the government of parliamentary systems, see Executive (government).
A government is "the organization, that is the governing authority of a political unit,"[1] "the ruling power in a political society,"[2] and the apparatus through which a governing body functions and exercises authority.[3]
"Government, with the authority to make laws, to adjudicate disputes,
and to issue administrative decisions, and with a monopoly of
authorized force where it fails to persuade, is an indispensable means,
proximately, to the peace of communal life."[4] "A compulsory territorial monopolist of protection and jurisdiction equipped with the power to tax without unanimous consent."[5]
Statist theorists maintain that the necessity of government derives
from the fact that the people need to live in communities, yet personal
autonomy must be constrained in these communities.
A state or province of sufficient size and complexity will have different layers or levels of government: local, regional and national.
Types of government
Some countries have hybrid forms of Government such as modern Iran with its combination of democratic and theocratic institutions, and constitutional monarchies such as The Netherlands combine elements of monarchy and democracy.[15][16]
Origin of government
For many thousands of years when pepole were hunter-gatherers
and small scale farmers, humans lived in small, "relatively
non-hierarchical" and mostly self-sufficient communities. However, the
human ability to precisely communicate abstract, learned information
allowed humans to become ever more effective at agriculture,[17] and that allowed for ever increasing population densities.[18] David Christian explains how this resulted in states with laws and governments:
As farming populations gathered in larger and denser 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 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.[18] By the third to second millenniums BC, some of these had developed into larger governed areas: the Indus Valley Civilization, Sumer, Ancient Egypt and the Yellow River Civilization.[19]
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.[20][21]
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.[22][23]
"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."[24]
Fundamental purpose of government
The fundamental purpose of government is the maintenance of basic security and public order — without which individuals cannot attempt to find happiness.[25] The philosopher Thomas Hobbes figured that people, as rational animals, saw submission to a government dominated by a sovereign as preferable to anarchy.[26][27]
People in a community create and submit to government for the purpose of establishing for themselves, safety and public order.[28][27][29][30]
Early governments
These are examples of some of the earliest known governments:
- Ancient Egypt—3000 BC[19]
- Indus Valley Civilization—3000 BC[19][31]
- Sumer—5200 BC[19]
- Yellow River Civilization (China)—2000 BC[19]
Expanded roles for government
Military defense
The fundamental purpose of government is to protect one from his or
her neighbors; however, a sovereign of one country is not necessarily
sovereign over the people of another country. The need for people to
defend themselves against potentially thousands of non-neighbors necessitates a national defense mechanism—a military.
Militaries are created to deal with the highly complex task of
confronting large numbers of enemies. A farmer can defend himself from
a single enemy person—or even five enemies, but he can't defend himself
from twenty thousand—even with the help of his strongest and bravest
family members. A far larger group would be needed, and despite the
fact that most of the members of the group would not be related by
family ties, they would have to learn to fight for one another as if they were all in the same family. An organization that trains people to do this is an army.
Wars and armies predated governments, but once governments came onto
the scene, they proceeded to dominate the formation and use of armies.
Governments seek to maintain monopolies on the use of force,[4] and to that end, they usually suppress the development of private armies within their states.
Economic security
Increasing complexities in society resulted in the formations of
governments, but the increases in complexity didn't stop. As the
complexity and interdependency's of human communities moved forward,
economies began to dominate the human experience enough for an
individual's survival potential to be affected substantially by the
region's economy. Governments were originally created for the purpose
of increasing people's survival potentials, and in that same purpose,
governments became involved in manipulating and managing regional
economies.[32] One of a great many examples would be Wang Mang's attempt to reform the currency in favor of the peasants and poor in ancient China.[33]
At a bare minimum, government ensures that money's value will not be undermined by prohibiting counterfeiting, but in almost all societies—including capitalist ones—governments attempt to regulate many more aspects of their economies.[34]
However, very often, government involvement in a national economy has
more than just a purpose of stabilizing it for the benefit of the
people. Often, the members of government shape the government's
economic policies for their own benefits. This will be discussed
shortly.
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.[35]
In modern, relatively high-income societies, a mixed approach is taken
where the government shares a substantial responsibility of taking care
of the elderly.[35]
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.[35]
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.[36]
Environmental security
Governments play a crucial role in managing environmental public
goods such as the atmosphere, forests and water bodies. Governments are
valuable institutions for resolving problems involving these public
goods at both the local and global scales (e.g., climate change, deforestation, overfishing).
Although in recent decades the economic market has been championed by
certain quarters as a suitable mechanism for managing environmental
entities, markets have serious failures and governmental intervention
and regulation and the rule of law is still required for the proper,
just and sustainable management of the environment.
Positive aspects of government
Governments vary greatly, and the situation of citizens within their governments can vary greatly from person to person. For many people, government is seen as a positive force.
Upper economic class support
Governments often seek to manipulate their nations' economies —
ostensibly for the nations' benefits. However, another aspect of this
kind of intervention is the fact that the members of government often
take opportunities to shape economic policies for their own benefits.
For example, capitalists in a government might adjust policy to favor
capitalism, so capitalists would see that government as a friend. In a
feudal society, feudal lords would maintain laws that reinforce their
powers over their lands and the people working on them, so those lords
would see their government as a friend. Naturally, the exploited
persons in these situations may see government very differently.
Support for democracy
Government, especially in democratic and republican forms, can be
seen as the entity for a sovereign people to establish the type of
society, laws and national objectives that are desired collectively. A
government so created and maintained will tend to be quite friendly
toward those who created and maintain it.
Religion
Government can benefit or suffer from religion, as religion can
benefit or suffer from government. While governments can threaten
people with physical harm for observed violations of the law, religion
often provides a psychological disincentive for socially destructive or
anti-government actions.[37][38]
Religion can also give people a sense of peace and resolve even when
they are in trying circumstances, and when an individual's religious
beliefs are aligned with the government's, that person will tend to see
government as a friend—especially during religious controversies.
Negative aspects of government
Since the positions of individuals with respect to their governments
can vary, there are people who see a government or governments as
negative.
War
In the most basic sense, a people of one nation will see the
government of another nation as the enemy when the two nations are at
war. For example, the people of Carthage saw the Roman government as the enemy during the Punic wars.[39]
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.
Religious opposition
There is a flip side to the phenomenon of people's ability to view a
government as a friend because they share the government's religious
views. People with opposing religious views will have a greater
tendency to view that government as their enemy. A good example would
be the condition of 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.[40]
Class oppression
Whereas capitalists in a capitalist country may tend to see that
nation's government as their friend, a class-aware group of industrial
workers—a proletariat—may see things very differently. 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,[41] 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 troops.[42]
Critical views and alternatives
The relative merits of various forms of government have long been
debated by philosophers, politicians and others. However, in recent
times, the traditional conceptions of government and the role of
government have also attracted increasing criticism from a range of
sources. Some argue that the traditional conception of government,
which is heavily influenced by the zero-sum perceptions of state actors
and focuses on obtaining security and prosperity at a national level
through primarily unilateral action, is no longer appropriate or
effective in a modern world that is increasingly connected and
interdependent. One such school of thought is human security,
which advocates for a more people-based (as opposed to state-based)
conception of security, focusing on protection and empowerment of
individuals. Human security calls upon governments to recognise that
insecurity and instability in one region affects all and to look beyond
national borders in defining their interests and formulating policies
for security and development. Human security also demands that
governments engage in a far greater level of cooperation and
coordination with not only domestic organisations, but also a range of
international actors such as foreign governments, intergovernmental
organisations and non-government organisations.
Whilst human security attempts to provide a more holistic and
comprehensive approach to world problems, its implementation still
relies to a large extent on the will and ability of governments to
adopt the agenda and appropriate policies. In this sense, human
security provides a critique of traditional conceptions of the role of
government, but also attempts to work within the current system of
state-based international relations. Of course, the unique
characteristics of different countries and resources available are some
constraints for governments in utilising a human security framework.
Synopsis
Government is sometimes an enemy and sometimes a friend. Government
exalts some of us and oppresses others of us. At times, governments are
aligned with our religious, economic and social views, and at other
times—misaligned.
The role of government in the lives of people has expanded
significantly during human history. Government's role has gone from
providing basic security to concern in religious affairs to control of
national economies and eventually to providing lifelong social
security. As our societies have become more complex, governments have
become more complex, powerful and intrusive. The controversies over how
big, how powerful and how intrusive governments should become will
continue for the remainder of human history.
Notes
- ^ Wordnet Search 3.0: Government
- ^ LoveToKnow: 1911 Encyclopedia: Government
- ^ American 760
- ^ a b Adler 80-81
- ^ Hoppe, Hans-Hermann (2003). The Myth of National Defense, 8. ISBN 0-945466-37-4.Â
- ^ American 65
- ^ Technically, anarchy is not a
- { Constitutional Monarchy} A government that has a king, but
his/her power is strictly limited by the government. An example of this
is the UK.
form of government.
- ^ American 483
- ^ Fotopoulos, Takis, The Multidimensional Crisis and Inclusive Democracy. (Athens: Gordios, 2005). (English translation of the book with the same title published in Greek).
- ^ "Victorian Electronic Democracy : Glossary" (July 28, 2005). Retrieved on 2007-12-14.
- ^ American 503
- ^ American 1134
- ^ American 1225
- ^ American 1793
- ^ "CIA World Factbook -- Iran". Central Intelligence Agency (2007). Retrieved on 2007-12-04. (printable version)
- ^ "CIA - World Factbook -- Netherlands". Central Intelligence Agency (2007). Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ Christian 146-147
- ^ a b Christian 245
- ^ a b c d e Christian 294
- ^ Christian 253
- ^ Most of this sentence is in the present tense because the process is still ongoing.
- ^ Christian 271
- ^ 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)
- ^ Christian 248
- ^ Schulze 81
- ^ Dietz 68
- ^ a b Social Contract Theory
- ^ Dietz 65-66
- ^ Hobbes idea of the necessity of the formation of government is known as the social contract theory.
- ^ The field of study and thought about th