What is government?

What Does government Mean

The term government mentions the development of a power of the State and / or dirigencial overall driving . According to the theory, a government is defined as the body that, as recognized by the Constitution , assumes the responsibilities of the executive power and concentrates political power to lead a given society . Generally, it is made up of a President or Prime Minister and a certain number of Ministers, Secretaries and other officials.

It is important to note that government does not mean the same as the State : a government manages to come to power (in the case of democracy , through free elections), exercises its task and withdraws, but the State always endures in the same way and is unalterable. against successive governments. In other words, it can be said that the government is a group where various bodies that lead a State are gathered, through which the state power governed and controlled by the legal order is reflected.

The story notes that the first governments were formed in the tribe, with the intention of coordinating efficiently human resources . Over the years, the government function would end up being divided into three branches: the Executive Branch , which acts as a coordinating body; the Legislative Power , in charge of generating the laws and norms that govern life in a certain territory; and the Judicial Power , whose task is to ensure compliance with said laws and regulations.
Among the different forms of government, mention can be made of democracy (where, through mechanisms of direct or indirect participation, the people elect their representatives) and the monarchy (where the supreme office of a State is for life and is usually appointed to through a hereditary order).
The term also refers to the method by which a political group leads a people. To govern a society, this group uses legitimately constituted state bodies to make laws and put them into practice.
The ways in which a government assumes its mandate can be diverse. In the case of a republic, it is decided through suffrage , all citizens vote to choose the best candidate to occupy the position; in the case of monarchies, the position is achieved by ties of blood or divine will. If it is a de facto government, the position is taken by force by a group that believes that the current government is not doing its job well.
Different debates on the ideal government

Throughout history, multiple theories have been made about which is the most recommended form of government and different options have been tried. Theorizing which individuals are the most apt to exercise the supreme position in power.
In Ancient Greece, Plato claimed that there were six possible forms of government and that among all of them, some of them extremely corrupt such as the oligarchy, there was the timocracy (a concept that he devised) and that it referred to a type of transitional government that was he found himself between the traditional forms of government and the ideals.
For Aristotle, the aspects that needed to be analyzed to understand whether a government was recommendable or not was whether the fundamental objective of the government was to seek the common interest or one's own. He proposed the monarchy as the ideal government because, despite the fact that it was a "wealthy" government, it used to have as its primary goal to achieve stability and social harmony.
Later, Machiavelli will state in his work "The Prince" that all the governments that had existed up to that moment were republicans or principalities and that possibly no ideology could be considered ideal, unless the good principles of the other forms could be merged into it. . That is, it proposed a type of mixed government , where monarchy, aristocracy and democracy coexist in this way, the powers of each of them would control the exercises of the others and avoid abuses, if necessary.
For his part, Saint Thomas , affirming himself in medieval theories, affirms that the ideal government must be one where power is concentrated in a single person, as the human body is ruled by a single soul, and a single god rules the Universe. This concept is strongly opposed to anarchy , however it ensures the right of the people to political arbitrariness, in case the monarch does not correctly comply with his mandates.
Constitutional and unconstitutional governments
Como lo hemos dicho anteriormente un gobierno constitucional se rige por una serie de leyes dictadas por organismos legítimamente escogidos. Cuentan con la característica de que varios partidos se presentan a elecciones y son elegidos limpiamente. El partido que más votos reciba encabezará el gobierno, el resto de los partidos ocuparan diferentes porcentajes en la cámara de diputados y senadores, a fin de que el poder se encuentre dividido de forma equitativa y no exista un gobierno monopolista. Además, el gobierno debe atarse a las leyes existentes y rendir cuenta de todas las acciones que realice. Estos requisitos convierten al Estado en una entidad democrática de derecho. Entre estos gobiernos se incluyen el sistema de gobierno presidencial, parlamentario o semipresidencial.
Un gobierno de facto (dictaduras), por su parte, es anticonstitucional porque para existir debe pasar por alto las leyes que rigen la armonía y la convivencia de esa sociedad. Estos gobiernos, por ende, no representan las ideas del pueblo sino de un reducido grupo de la sociedad que a través de la violencia destituye al actual gobernante para ocupar su puesto.

Un gobierno de facto puede surgir de varias formas: a través de un golpe de Estado o por una revolución u otro procedimiento de hecho que se encuentre desvinculado con el ordenamiento jurídico.

Como ejemplos de este tipo de gobiernos podemos mencionar el de Franco en España durante la Guerra Civil de l936, en Argeliaduring the time of Independence and in Latin America in countries like Chile and Argentina in the 1970s, and in Colombia today.