GOVERNMENT (Lat. gubernacuktm, a rudder. The Romans compared the state to a vessel, and applied the term gubernator, helmsman, to the leader or actual ruler of a state. From the Latin, this word has pass ed into most of the modern European lan guages). That institution or aggregate of institutions by which a state makes and car ries out those rules of action which are nec essary to enable men to live in a social state, or which are imposed upon the people form ing a state.
We understand, in modern political science, by state, in its widest sense, an independent society, acknowledging no superior, and by the term govern ment, that institution or aggregate of institutions by which that society makes and carries out those rules of action which are necessary to enable men to live in a social state, or which are imposed upon the people forming that society by those who pos sess the power or authority of prescribing them. Government is the aggregate of authorities which rule a society. By administration, again, we un derstand in modern times, and especially in more or less free countries, the aggregate of those persons in whose hands the reins of government are for the time-being (the chief ministers or heads of depart ments). But the terms state, government, and administration are not always used in their strict ness. The government of a state being its most prominent feature, which is most readily perceived, government has frequently been used for state ; and the publicists of the last century almost always used the term government, or form of government, when they discussed the different political societies or states. On the other hand, government is often used, to this day, for administration, in the sense in which it has been explained. We shall give in this article a classification of all governments and political societies which have existed and exist to this day.
Governments, or the authorities of societies, are, like societies themselves, grown institutions. See INSTITUTION.
They are never actually created by agreement or compact. Even where portions of government are formed by agreement, as, for instance, when a cer tain family is called to rule over a country, the contracting parties must previously be conscious of having authority to do so. As society originates with the family, so does authority or government. Nowhere do men exist without authority among them, even though it were but in its mere incipien cy. Men are forced into this state of things by the fundamental law that with them, and with them alone of all mammals, the period of dependence of the young upon its parents outlasts by many years the period of lactation ; so that, during this period, of post-lactational dependence, time and opportu nity are given for the development of affection and the habit of obedience on the one hand, and of af fection and authority on the other, as well as of mutual dependence. The family is a society, and expands into clusters of families, into tribes end larger societies, collecting into communities, always carrying the habit and necessity of authority and mutual support along with them. As men advance, the great and pervading law of mutual dependence shows itself more and more clearly, and acts more and more intensely. Man is eminently a social being, not only as to an instinctive love of aggrega tion, not only as to material necessity and security, but also as to mental and affectional development, and not only as to a given umber of existing beings, or what we will call as to extent, but also as to descent of generation after generation, or, as we may call it, transmission. Society, and its govern
meat along with it, are continuous. Government exists and continues among men, and laws have au thority for generations which neither made them nor had any direct representation in making them, because the necessity of government—necessary ac cording to the nature of social man and to his wants —is a continuous necessity. But the family Is not only the institution from which once, at a distant period, society, authority, government arose. The family increases in importance, distinctness, and in tensity of action, as man advances, and continues to develop authority, obedience, affection, and social adhesiveness, and thus acts with reference to the state as the feeder acts with reference to the canal; the state originates daily anew in the family. Although man is en eminently social being, he Is also individual, morally, intellectually, and physi cally; and though his individuality may endure even beyond this life, he is compelled, by his physical condition, to appropriate and to produce, and thus to imprint his individuality upon the material world around, to create property. But man is not only an appropriating and producing, he is also an ex changing being. He always exchanges and always intercommunicates. This constant intertwining of man's Individualism and socialism creates mutual claims of protection, rights, the necessity of rules, of laws: in one word, as individuals and as natural members of society, men produce and require gov ernment. No society, no cluster of men, no individ uals banded together even for a temporary pur pose, can exist without some sort of government instantly springing up. Government is natural to men and characteristic. No animals have a govern ment ; no authority exists among them ; instinct and physical submission alone exist among them. Man alone has laws which ought to be obeyed but may be disobeyed. Expansion, accumulation, devel opment, progress, relapses, disintegration, violence, error, superstition, the necessity of intercommunica tion, wealth and poverty, peculiar disposition, tem perament, configuration of the country, traditional types, pride and avarice, knowledge and ignorance, sagacity of Individuals, taste, activity and sluggish ness, noble or criminal bias, position, both geo graphical and chronological,—all that affects num bers of men affects their governments, and an end less variety of governments and political societies has been the consequence ; but, whatever form of government may present Itself to us, the funda mental idea, however rudely conceived, is always the protection of society and its members, security of property and person, the administration of jus tice therefor, and the united efforts of society to furnish the means to authority to carry out its ob jects,—contribution, which, viewed as imposed by authority, is taxation. Those bands of robbers which occasionally have risen in disintegrating so cieties, as in India, and who merely robbed and dev astated, avowing that they did not mean to admin ister justice or protect the people, form no excep tion, although the extent of their soldiery and the periodicity of their raids caused them to be called governments. What little of government continued to exist was still the remnant of the communal gov ernment of the oppressed hamlets; while the rob bers themselves could not exist without a govern ment among themselves.