What Is Government? Detailed Essay Sample Explanation

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The Government and the Constitution

According to Aristotle, a constitution guides the government activities when it comes to the ruling its people. The constitution is a reference guide containing the people will. The constitution greatly determines the type of government. A constitution is a precursor to the government; the government is only the creator of a constitution. The constitution contains the legislative requirement that protects its citizens. The constitution of a country is not an act of the government leader, but of those that they represent. The Constitution is important because it is a body of an element where the government makes references based on the quotes in the various articles. The constitution contains the principles upon which the government needs to organize its power.

The Economic Role of the Government

Government plays a fundamental role not only in governing people, but also facilitates development processes. Economic development is determined by market forces, including market rules and operating procedures. The government plays a major role in the economy because it facilitates the process to ensure a smooth transfer of goods and services. For example, the government has the mandate to its people to fund and develop proper infrastructure through taxation.

What Type of Government?

The government can take different forms; historically Aristotle provides six classifications of government, which he further classifies, them as three normal types of government and three pervasive types of government. The three standard types of government include the monarchy where one person, aristocracy where a few people are in charge of running the government and polity government where people are ruled by the majority. Oligarchy is a type of government rules by a few individual while theocracy is a government ruled by God, this means the type of government ruled by a religious individual. Dictatorship is a type of government where people do not have the power instead; they are ruled by force often through the military.

A democratic government

Aristotle argues that a democratic government can be the worst form of government, but if handled well, citizens could greatly benefit. Democracy is the opposite of other forms of government. Today, most of the world attention is on democratic governance. The US is an example of a democratic government where citizens have the freedom of choice and of expression. Freedom means individual rights being protected. Democracy is founded on the principle of autonomy whereby the ultimate power lies with the citizens. The main principle of democracy is that, every citizen has equal rights and privileges.

In a democratic government, the majority rule is their principle; this means that what is expressed by citizens through voting or their elected leader’s needs to be adopted. Democracy is developed based on the principle of cultural values and equality and liberty. All these principles are yet to be achieved. It is not easy for the government to ensure that citizens exercise their rights, not many people in charge of running the government are democratic. That is why a perfect democracy is not easy to achieve.

The difficulty in achieving perfect democracy was echoed by Sir Winston Churchill when he stated that no one could pretend that democracy is perfect, for him democracy is one of the worst forms of government because it requires a lot of consideration. Winston Churchill stated, “Perfect form of government compared to any other form of government produces even less desirable results than democracy“. Despite all the sentiments about democracy, looking at America today, you can say that there is no form of government has been able to regulate public affairs better than a democratic form of government.

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