Government Essay, Research Paper

Hello, welcome to the town of Lawernceville and the nation of the United

States. Since you do not understand the way our nation is organized and run, let

me try to explain it to you.

The town of Lawernceville is a group of people linked together in order to

decide ground rules for their society and behave accordingly. This group of people

is a small part of many small groups that make up the United States. Like these

other small organizations, the town of Lawernceville has a government, which is

part of a larger government called the United States government. Rules made by

any organization other than government apply and are intended to apply only to

members of that organization. However, the laws that the government of the

United States applies, are intended to apply to all members of the United States

including the members of all other organizations within the United States which

includes Lawernceville. The United States government has the legitimacy to

enforce rules and can use maximum force in order to achieve them. The key word

here is legitimacy. This means that it is the general belief of the members of a

society that the government?s powers to make and enforce rules are proper and

lawful. This scope of power includes Lawenceville and all other small

organizations like it. The rules of government are recognized as authoritative. That

means it is considered to be more binding upon all members of a society than the

rules of all other organizations. In any conflict between the laws of government

and the rules of any other organization, the government law prevails. Government

can impose sanctions but can also send lawbreakers to prison and sentence the to

death. ?The laws they make are made to regulate everybody, all of the time, and

are universal in their application.? (Ranney)

You are probably wondering what a government is and how it works? In

the United States of America, there is a body of people that make and enforce

laws. This is what we call a government. This government is not made up of one

or two people, but thousands of elected government officials. But, these are not the

only people in the U.S that control what the government does, everybody in the

United States does. This is a type of government is called a democracy.

Democracy is a ?form of government organized in accordance with the principles

of popular sovereignty, political equality, popular consultation, and majority rule.?

(Ranney) This basically means that all people of the United States have say (if

they choose to) in what is done within the society. The process by which this is

achieved is by political elections. Political elections are part of the democratic

system. Every person in Lawerenceville and the United States has the right to take

part in them. This way everybody has the same opportunity to participate in the

political decision-making process. The voters mainly choose between two political

groups. They are known as the Republicans and Democrats. These political groups

are formed because people have different views on different issues such as

abortion, euthanasia, and taxes. Each group nominates a person to represent their

group. After this, the nominated person goes campaigning and gives people

reasons why they should vote for them. Finally, people decide who they want to

have representing them by voting for them. The nominee with the most votes gets

to represent the people. This is how the government officials get elected.

There are many factors that affect people decisions they should vote for.

Political socialization is one of these factors. ?It is the developmental process from

which people acquire their political orientations and patterns of behavior.?

(Ranney) ?It is the main process by which people?s primary and categorical group

membership are translated in to their political attitudes and behavior. People

develop this throughout their entire life.?(Ranney)

A type of political socialization that has indirect influences on people?s

political stances are their family, schools and the media. The family is the most

powerful social influence in a child?s life. ?This explains the tendency of

children?s political attitudes, preferences, and levels of interest and activity to

resemble those of their parents.?(Ranney) Governments also rely on public

schools to shape desired attitudes in children. So schools provide the government

with a direct way to shape young people?s political attitudes. Media has also has a

large impact on election procedures. This because they have the power to

influence public opinion. That is because it is where most Americans get their

political information from. ?The media can also reach the largest number of

people in the shortest time.? (Ranney) ?Socialization through the mass media is

the best short-run technique available and is crucial to political modernization.?

(Ranney) Media is controlled somewhat by the government to shape the desired

attitudes and behavior in the citizens.

As stated above, popular sovereignty and public opinion are part of the

democratic system. It requires that the ultimate power to make political decisions

is put in all the people rather than in some of them. In a democracy, power must be

put in all the people and not in one of them or a small group of them. The people

in a democracy may lend of delegate part of their decision-making power to

legislators, executive?s judges or anyone else they wish. The people are sovereign

as long as they, and not their delegates, have the ultimate power. Democracy

means government by the people for the people. The people are all persons

physically present within the nation?s borders at a given moment.

Public opinion is the sum of all private opinions of which government officials are

aware and take into account in making their decisions. The public opinion is the

cutting edge of a nations political culture. It is specific to particular political

situations and issues and is not a body of ideas on all issues held by all members

of the community known as the public. Each issue produces its particular

combination of opinion groups, always including one that expresses no opinion

whatsoever. From issue to issue there is always some reshuffling among the

individuals composed of many opinions.

There are many of these issues being discussed in this election. For

instance, whether abortion should be legalized or not? Should we have

proportional taxes or flat taxes? Should we legalize euthanasia or not? In these

cases majority rules. This is when the people disagree on an issue. The

government should act according to the wishes of the larger rather than the smaller

number.

Now that the political process of the nation of the United States has been

explained, hopefully you can understand the way in which our society functions.