Government is a system of rules and laws that control a group of people. It may be a single country, a state within a country or even an area of a city. Governments make and enforce laws, collect taxes and print money. They also have monopolies on the use of force, and they have systems of justice that list the acts that are against the law and describe the punishments for breaking them. Governments also provide valuable services such as police departments and fire departments.
Governments also have the responsibility to protect what are known as common goods. These are things that everyone can use but that are in limited supply and therefore need to be protected so that a few people do not take all of them for themselves (such as fish in the sea or clean drinking water). Governments also have the responsibility to provide certain social programs. These are things that a government provides to its citizens, such as welfare benefits or national medical insurance. Governments can be criticized for providing too many of these programs, but they can also be praised for the fact that they provide them at all.
The concept of what a government should be and how it should be formed has changed a lot over time. Each nation has a different government because its own environment, history and political ideals shape the way it is governed. Some nations have kings or queens while others have constitutional states, democracies and dictatorships.
Most governments consist of several branches that work together in a system of checks and balances to ensure that one branch does not become too powerful. For example, the president can choose judges to serve on the Supreme Court but the Senate has to approve those choices. The Senate can also decide to impeach a president or judge. The Framers of the Constitution created this system of separation of powers so that no one person could exercise too much power over a nation.
A government’s job is to set the standards for its citizens and protect them from harm or danger. It has the right to do this, even if that violates the rights of other nations or individuals. This is the essence of sovereignty, the idea that a government has the right to control its own territory and to rule over it. Almost every place on Earth has a government that claims sovereignty over it, except for small border disputed areas and Antarctica, where almost no people live.