How Is Government Like A Business?

A government is a structured body of government made up of citizens exercising political power. It is elected for a limited period of time and controls specific organs of state such as: government, military, legislature, police, courts, administration, education, commerce, finances and technology. The head of each state is called a governor and the prime minister of a country is called a prime minister. A president is the leader of the country who has executive power. He exercises power through the use of the power granted to him by the constitution. His powers are limited, that is, he can perform only those functions only which are defined in the constitution and he cannot exceed those limits.

There are two types of government: representative democracy and direct democracy. Representative democracy refers to the election of individuals to participate in a government directly, whereas, direct democracy refers to the election of citizens through a voting process. In representative democracy, direct democracy gives citizens a greater say in policy making through voting. The supreme power is with the governed because in a representative democracy, citizens have little or no influence over decisions made by their government. For example, in a representative democracy, a farmer can decide to grow food if he wants to but he has no power to stop the government wheat monopoly on his land. However, in direct democracy, the government decides for itself what laws to make.

Direct democracy is characterized by citizens having more influence in policymaking than they do in representative democracy. Direct democracy encourages direct involvement in politics. In representative democracy, the decisions made are more often influenced by major interest groups with special sway at the national level. The type of democracy is called democratic socialism. Under democratic socialism, there is less emphasis on providing social welfare programs than in providing services to its citizens.

Absolute monarchies are systems where there is an absolute ruler. An absolute monarchy is ruled by a single person, the queen, king, prince or government officials. The constitution of an absolute monarchy protects all minorities including the poor and disadvantaged.

A representative democracy allows elected representatives to make decisions about how to develop their polity. A representative can be voted into office based on his/her party popularity, some other factors including their performance in office and some communal views. The majority of representatives are elected from districts. All representatives are closely related to their constituents. This feature is similar to that of the village or town community.

Socialism and Communism both offer a form of government by the people, for the people. The difference lies in the way they describe wealth, property and other aspects of the society. Socialism puts class antagonism ahead of individual freedom; whereas, communism looks only to maximize the economic system through a central planning board. A centrally planned economy would usually create a class-free existence for all citizens. However, even in the best of socialist countries, most people live relatively poor lives. capitalism, on the other hand, is associated with luxury goods, aggressive advertising and other non-market aspects of life that destroy the community spirit.