Noun

Singular government

Plural governments

government (plural governments)

1. The body with the power to make and/or enforce laws for a country, land area, people, or organization.
2. A group of people who hold a monopoly on the legitimate use of force in a given territory.
3. The state and its administration viewed as the ruling political power.
4. The management or control of a system.
5. The tenure of a chief of state.

Derived terms

• branch of government
• close enough for government work
• federal government
• government agent
• government bond
• government-censored
• government debt
• government house
• government issue
• government man
• government note
• government purchases
• government security
• government stroke
• government wharf
• governmental

• governmentese
• governmentwide
• head of government
• in government
• local government
• military government
• municipal government
• non-government
• parliamentary government
• petticoat government
• puppet government
• representative government
• seat of government
• self-government
• shadow government
• unitary government

Related terms

• govern
• governance
• governor

A government is the body within an organization that has the authority to make and enforce rules, laws and regulations.

Typically, the government refers to a civil government which can be either local, national, or international. However, commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also governed by internal bodies. Such bodies may be called boards of directors, managers, or governors or they may be known as the administration (as in schools) or councils of elders (as in churches).

Growth of an organization increases the complexity of its government, therefore small towns or small-to-medium privately-operated enterprises will have few officials compared to larger organizations such as multinational corporations which will have multiple interlocking, hierarchical layers of administration and governance. As complexity increases and the nature of governance becomes more complicated,so does the need for formal policies and procedures.

Public sector governance is studied as Public Administration while that in the private sector is studied as Business Administration.

The concept of government has been around since humanity itself where hunter-gatherers would commonly establish tribes high authority and have unique ideals. However, government is not limited to the human species itself as many animals establish groups such as ants, lions, and bees. Although, a common trait of animals, specifically mammals and colony insects are a social caste that may work in a governmental way.

A government is a body that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws within a civil, corporate, religious, academic, or other organization or group.

Contents

• 1 Sourced
• 2 Unsourced
• 3 See also
• 4 External links

Sourced

• [Administration] covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, guided; men are seldom restrained from acting, such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which government is the shepherd.
  • Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy In America (1835)

• A state, is called the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly lieth it also; and this lie creepeth from its mouth: “I, the state, am the people. It is a lie! Creators were they who created peoples, and hung a faith and a love over them: thus they served life.Destroyers, are they who lay snares for many, and call it the state: they hang a sword and a hundred cravings over them.
  • Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus spake Zarathustra, XI. The New Idol

• Government, in the last analysis, is organized opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government, which sooner or later becomes autocratic government.
  • William Lyon Mackenzie King, Message of the Carillon (1927)

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Sun Aug 2 08:43:06 2009