GOVERNMENT is the structure through which authority is exercised over a group of people. Government provides society with:
- rules about conflict resolution and the allocation of resources
- U.S. constitution and constitutional law; federal statutory laws; federal administrative rules and regulations
- Texas Constitution; Texas statutory laws; Texas administrative rules and regulations
- local ordinances
- institutions where governmental power is exercised to enforce those rules and maintain social order
- U.S. Congress (i.e., U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate); President and federal bureaucracy; federal courts (Supreme Court, courts of appeals, district courts)
- Texas Legislature (i.e., Texas House of Representatives and Texas Senate); plural executive and bureaucracy; state courts (Texas Supreme Court, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, courts of appeals, and district courts)
- county government (commissioner’s courts), municipal government, local courts (justices of the peace, municipal courts, and county courts), and special districts
Government is created to promote the safety and well-being of the nation. Of course, not everyone agrees on what this means or how best to achieve this goal (i.e., which collective goals the government should seek to accomplish, and which benefits the government should seek to provide). As a result, conflict arises within government, making politics necessary.
Similarly, not everyone agrees as to whether – and why – we should have government, nor does everyone agree on what the “right” form of government looks like.
Because of the rules and institutions we have in place and the way that we have divided power between the different levels of government, our government is considered a CONSTITUTIONAL FEDERAL REPUBLIC, which is a form of indirect or representative democracy.
For more information about the different types of government found around the world today, check out the CIA World Factbook website.