MEANING, NATURE AND SCOPE OF GOVERNMENT

 INTRODUCTION

You need to know that the agency through which the purpose and cardinal objectives of a State (properly so-called) are achieved is called government, whose organization could be seen either through the territorial structure or by functionality. Government could be defined as the orderly control and direction of the affairs of a group of people in an organized society. Government is a creation of a state and could be geographically structured at three-tier as the case in Nigeria, thus: Federal, States and Local Government Councils. Each of these tiers is recognized by the nation’s constitution and has different constituted authority running the affairs at the level, as enshrined in the constitution.

However, another prism through which a government could be viewed is the organs or institutions through which the day-to-day activities of the state are carried out. These are The Executive, the Legislature and Judiciary, which are the bodies responsible for the enactment, enforcement, formulation and implementation of laws and as policies for the betterment of the people. You are going to learn more about this in this unit as we progress.

 OBJECTIVES

At the end of this unit, you should be able to:

• Explain the concept of government

• Discuss the basic functions of government

• Identify the difference between government and the State

MAIN CONTENT

Concept of Government
The word “government” is conceived in abstraction by some people and in most cases, exempt themselves from being part of the concept. Such people often refer to public properties e.g. funds, hospitals, offices, vehicles, etc. as belonging to “government” which is a phenomenon you cannot see with your eyes. This perception explains why some people feel unconcerned when public fund is mismanaged or embezzled by some corrupt public officials or public properties or infrastructure become object of attack during protest against a public policy.

This category of people are probably unaware that the people (including themselves) eventually withstand the worst for such vandalization which they do through taxation. Yet some people believe that only official such as public/civil servants, military and paramilitary personnel or foreign envoys are government. The truth here is that these are merely functionaries or agents of government as government itself is the agent of the state. Therefore, the concept of government has to be seen beyond these purview or narrow definitions because it has to do with the way in which people conduct themselves as they carry out their personal and community affairs. According to Wikipedia:





A government is the organization, machinery or agency, through which a political unit exercises its authority, controls and administers  public policy, and directs and controls the actions of its members or subjects. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government

Frank Beasley (ed. 1999:147) defines government within the context of the social sciences, as “the particular group of people, the administrative bureaucracy, who  control a (nation-)state at a given time, and the manner in which their governing organizations are structured.” However, Flint, Colin & Taylor, Peter (2007:137), opine thus:

Governments are the means through which state power is employed. States are served by a continuous succession of different governments. Each successive government is composed of a specialized and privileged body of individuals, who monopolize political decision- making, and are separated by status and organization from the population as a whole. Their function is to enforce existing laws, legislate new ones and arbitrate conflicts via their monopoly on violence.

Harold Barclay (1990:31) submits that in some societies, this group is often a self-perpetuating or hereditary class. In other societies, such as democracies, the political roles remain, but there is frequent turnover of the people actually filling the positions. In a nutshell, you should understand that for people or group of people to live together there is the need for rules guiding individual conducts in the larger society to ensure peace and stability. The central authority called “government” decides what is best for the individuals and groups and how to utilise its resources to provide the best living standard for members. Can you imagine living in a society without transportation, water supply, road network and without other social infrastructural facilities? How it would be like if nobody was charged with the responsibility to make sure laws are made and respected or to provide plan where buildings should go and keep our environment clean and safe? We need government to take care of many of these things.

Self-Assessment Exercise (SAE) 3.1

Explain the concept of government from various perspectives