Government is the authority and structure by which people organize to accomplish collective goals and provide benefits for themselves as a society. Governments take on a wide variety of forms, but the essential characteristic is that they create rules for citizens to follow.
A society needs to have rules if it is to avoid the kinds of conflicts that have plagued human civilization throughout history. Whether these conflicts arise because people are innately selfish and must fight over property, or whether they are the result of economic systems that foster greed and inequality, they have always required the assertion of power by some entity to bring order to societies.
Governments are the institutions that make and enforce laws, collect taxes, distribute resources and provide a system of justice. They also establish a framework for the exercise of political freedom and autonomy that are the foundations of any modern civilization. Governments are organized in a variety of ways, depending on the philosophy and values that shape them. There are three main types of government today: democracies, totalitarian regimes and authoritarian systems with a number of hybrid systems in between.
One fundamental function of all governments is the creation of rules to prevent conflicts and ensure law and order. Another important function is the provision of goods and services that people cannot obtain in sufficient quantity or at a low enough cost on their own. Two examples are education and national defense. Education is a public good that only the government can provide, and national defense is an essential service that only the federal government can perform through its military, intelligence agencies and diplomatic efforts.
People elect representatives to local councils, state legislatures and Congress to make laws and allocate funds for their governments. They decide how the money will be spent, and they draft budgets to determine where it should go for such things as schools, police departments and parks. Governments at all levels spend the funds they raise by imposing various taxes on income, property and sales.
The responsibilities and powers of government vary according to the type of government, but all governments have in common that they are organized around the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch (Senate and House) and the Judicial Branch (Supreme Court and lower courts). Most Americans have more daily contact with their state and local governments than with the federal government. Their laws affect the way they live, and if they disagree with laws that their elected officials pass, they can work to influence policy making by influencing the decisions of their representatives or trying to persuade the President to veto a bill.
Many governments also have a responsibility to provide social programs for their citizens. This can range from welfare programs to national medical insurance and education. The debate over what role government should play in providing for the welfare of its citizens is ongoing. Some people think it is a duty of the government to relieve the burdens of poverty on its citizens, while others believe that such programs destroy personal responsibility and encourage people to depend too heavily on the state for their well-being.