Defining Government Study Notes

American Government and Civic Engagement HIST 1301 DEFINING GOVERNMENT The way a society sets up and distributes power to achieve shared objectives and deliver advantages that the community as a whole need is referred to as its government. Global governments aim to achieve a number of objectives, including safe and sound national boundaries, economic success, and citizen safety and well-being. Benefits are also given by governments to their citizenry. Benefits offered vary by nation and particular form of government, but generally speaking, governments give things like health care, education, and transportation infrastructure. The process of acquiring and using power within a government to establish and accomplish certain objectives, particularly those pertaining to the distribution of resources across a country, is referred to as politics. Economic and governmental systems can occasionally be misunderstood. This is due to the tight relationship or development between specific political ideologies and governmental structures and various economic systems. For instance, the concepts of democratic republics, self-government, and natural rights evolved almost concurrently with the development of the capitalist economic system in Western Europe and North America. The ideal of liberty gained importance throughout this period. All humans have an inherent right to life, liberty, and property, according to seventeenth-century English political philosopher John Locke. This gave rise to the notion that individuals ought to have the right to freely accept government. This gave rise to the notion that people should rule themselves through elected representatives rather than a monarch in the eighteenth century in Great Britain's colonies in North America and subsequently in France. Only these representatives selected by the people had the authority to enact laws that would control them. In a similar vein, Adam Smith, a Scottish philosopher born nineteen years after Locke, thought that everyone had the right to own property in any manner they chose. Smith maintained that people should be free to pursue their own interests and keep the profits from their labours rather than being subject to the dictates of the state, the private sector, or industry. Competition would guarantee that costs would stay low and that defective products would vanish from the market. Businesses would benefit, customers' demands would be met, and society as a whole would thrive in this way. In his book The Wealth of Nations, which was released in 1776 —the same year the Declaration of Independence was drafted—Smith explored these concepts, which served as the foundation for industrial capitalism. In the United States, capitalism and representative government coevolved, and many citizens mistakenly associate capitalism with democracy, which is a kind of self-governance. Theoretically, a democracy encourages independence and the freedom to do as one pleases rather than letting the government dictate how one lives, whether that control is good or harmful. Individualism is also a prerequisite for capitalism. However, in order to preserve their liberty, prosperous capitalists want political structures over which they have at least some control. Nonetheless, capitalism and democracy do not always coexist. In fact, it is possible to make the case that a capitalist economic system has some negative effects on democracy. It hasn't always been the case that capitalism, as Smith predicted, would bring wealth to all. In many capitalist countries, there are significant wealth disparities between the owners of large corporations, industries, and financial institutions and the people who provide labour for others in return for pay. As a result, a very tiny minority with enormous wealth may have far more influence over the government than the bulk of people, a point that will be covered later. An alternative economic structure is socialism. In socialist nations, the government, not private citizens, owns the means of producing wealth, such as industries, vast farms, and banks. The government creates money and then distributes it to the populace, mostly through social programmes that offer free or low-cost childcare, education, and health care, among other services. In socialist nations, the government also typically owns and manages telecommunications companies, railroads, and aeroplanes, as well as utilities like electricity. An oligarchy is the form of governance seen in many socialist nations, where participation in politics is restricted to members of the ruling class or a certain political party. For instance, the Chinese Communist Party controls the country's government. The democratic government and the capitalist economic system in the United States collaborate closely. The distribution of products and services is impacted by the two's interdependence. The market offers a wide range of products and services that Americans require. For instance, there is no shortage of food, clothes, or shelter since these services are delivered by profit-making private enterprises. We refer to these products and services as private commodities. 1. Consumers are able to get what they want in the quantity that they require. Naturally, this is the best scenario. In actuality, those who are impoverished either cannot afford to buy enough food and clothes to suit their requirements, or the food and clothing they can purchase in large quantities is of worse quality. Additionally, it can be challenging to locate suitable housing since, in the most desired neighborhoods—those with low crime rates and excellent schools—housing is sometimes out of reach for the poor, working class, and occasionally middle class individuals who cannot afford to buy or rent. As a result, everything that the market requires to fulfil everyone's requirements cannot be provided in sufficient quantities or at reasonable prices. Consequently, the government provides some products. Public goods are those products or services that are freely accessible to everybody. Education and national security are two examples of these public goods. It is hard to see how a private company could defend the US from invasion. How might it raise its own armies and design offensive and defensive strategies? The men and women who served would have no money. From where would one obtain intelligence? The only institution that can safeguard the country is the government, because it has the power to tax, use the resources of the entire country, and enforce citizen compliance. In a similar vein, public schools in the US offer education to every child. Public schools are free for kids of all faiths, races, and ethnicities, as well as all socioeconomic groups and intellectual skill levels, from kindergarten to twelfth grade. All of the country's youngsters could never receive an education from private schools. In the United States, there is some education offered by private schools; nevertheless, these establishments have tuition, and the only parents who can afford to send their children there are those who are awarded scholarships. Some institutions have extremely expensive tuition rates, on par with private college fees. Most children from working-class and impoverished families, as well as many from middle-class families, would lack formal education if private schools were the only educational options available. One kind of good known as a toll good is private education. A large number of individuals can access and utilise toll goods, but only if they have the financial means to do so. They fall somewhere in the centre of private and public goods. In the US, parents are free to send their kids to public schools. They can opt to send their children to a private school, but the private school will charge them. However, all students can attend public schools, which are run by the government, since they offer free education. Thus, the nation as a whole gains from the educated labour force and voters that the public education system produces. Another way that public and private commodities differ from one another is that the former are provided to everyone, usually at no extra cost. Which additional public goods are provided by the US government? Governments at all levels —federal, state, and local—offer stability and security through the use of the armed forces as well as police and fire services. Other beneficial services and products offered by the government include mail delivery, public transit, education, and housing and health care for the underprivileged. The fire brigade does not request payment in order to extinguish a home fire. The police will attempt to defend the residents and apprehend the intruder if they break into a home and attempt to cause harm, but they will not demand payment for their services. Citizens who contribute to the general tax base provide the funding for the provision of these goods and services. The government also carries out the crucial task of safeguarding common goods, which are resources like clean drinking water and fish in the sea that are available to everyone for free but have a limited quantity. Since these products are available to everybody, they need to be safeguarded to prevent a few individuals from taking everything and depriving others of everything. Here are some illustrations of toll, private, public, and common commodities. In addition to ensuring stability and equal access to commodities and services, government establishes the framework that enables the public to have access to these resources. People in the US elect representatives to Congress, state legislatures, and local councils. These organisations enact legislation to oversee their spheres of influence. Additionally, they enact laws to collect funds by imposing taxes on sales, real estate, and income. In order to decide how the money received will be used for services, the local, state, and federal governments also create budgets. Local governments get funding for public park upkeep, law enforcement, and education. Among other objectives, state governments set aside funds for wildlife management, upkeep of state highways and bridges, and state schools and universities. Funds are allocated nationwide for defence, Social Security, veteran pensions, upkeep of federal courts and prisons, and administration of national parks. At every level, duly elected representatives work to ensure funds are allocated for projects that will improve the lives of the people residing in their districts. Following budgetary allocation, monies are received by government agencies at all levels for the aforementioned uses and are put to use in delivering services to the general public. Laws are also made by the local, state, and federal governments to uphold law and order and guarantee the smooth operation of society, which includes the fair operation of the corporate marketplace. For instance, government authorities in the United States control the quantity of harmful gases manufacturers are allowed to produce, the quality of food that is sold, and the safety of toys and cars. Congress also makes rules governing banks. Government regulates business in this way, something it would not be able to do if capitalism in the US operated fully according to Adam Smith's theories—that is, virtually completely uncontrolled. Most governments offer their constituents access to commodities and ensure public safety, but they also give them a way to engage with the government and voice their concerns to those in positions of authority. Press and speech freedoms are safeguarded by Western democracies, like the United States, Britain, France, and others. Voting is permitted in these countries as well as others throughout the globe. Politics, as previously said, is the process through which decisions are made on the distribution of resources and the economic and social policies that the government will implement. Said another way, politics is the game of who wins and how. Selecting the ideals that the government will uphold and which it won't is a key component of politics. In order to encourage an ideology like individuality, the government may decide to lower taxes or relax industry and company rules, giving people more money to invest in their own businesses. It may boost taxes to fund more public transit, public education, affordable housing for the underprivileged, and senior care if it decides to embrace egalitarianism, which advocates for treating everyone equally and eliminating socioeconomic disparities. For instance, the government may approve the tapping of people's phones and impose restrictions on what may be published in newspapers if it believes that national security is more important than individual liberty. The degree to which law enforcement authorities can pry into people' private communications will be subject to stricter regulations from the government if liberty is deemed more vital. The solution is determined in part by public involvement and the political process. A key component of politics is civic engagement, or the involvement that links people to their government. Citizens in the United States have a significant impact on the policies that are followed, the values that the government chooses to uphold, the initiatives that receive money, and the individuals who have the final say. There are many ways to get involved in politics: reading, watching, or listening to news reports; talking politics; attending or watching political debates on television; contributing to political campaigns; passing out campaign flyers; voting; participating in protest marches; and writing letters to their elected representatives.