Faith C.

San Pedro IV-Einstein

Assignment in Journalism

February 2, 2011

PEACE AND ORDER, GOOD GOVERNMENT

In every nation, there is one thing behind its success and failure. It is the government.
But, what is government?

Government refers to the particular group of people, who control a state at a given time,
and the manner in which their governing organizations are structured. That is, governments are
the means through which state power is employed. Its main purpose is to improve or maintain
the wellness of the countries all over the world. That is why it is very important; especially it
provides every individual an orderly, peaceful, healthy and wealthy life.

The government has three duties on its territory. First, it must protect the nation it holds.
It must protect the people, places, wealth, etc. from danger. Secondly, it must preserve peace
within its boundaries. And lastly, it must ensure that every family unit of nation has place for a
home and means of livelihood. In order to perform these three duties, it must have a specialized
and privilege body of individuals who monopolize political decision-making. It also enforces
existing laws, legislate new ones and arbitrates conflicts.

Every nation on the world has its own kind of government. This depends on what is
suitable to the people’s needs or wants. It may be based on the economy, authority and politics
of that particular territory.

The government can be classified according to economy or who provides the people on
their needs. These classifications are capitalism, socialism and communism. Under capitalism,
people own their businesses and property and must buy services for private use. Socialist
governments own many of the larger industries and provide education, health and welfare
services while allowing citizens some economic choices. In a communist country, the
government owns all businesses and farms and provides its people's healthcare, education and
welfare. 

The governments classified according to politics are dictatorship, totalitarian, theocracy,

monarchy, parliamentary, republic and anarchy. In dictatorship, single leader who has not been
elected rules the country. In a military dictatorship, the army is in control. Usually, there is little
or no attention to public opinion or individual rights. In totalitarian, single political party rules.  

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People are forced to do what the government tells them and may also be prevented from leaving
the country. In theocratic country, the rulers claim to be ruling on behalf of a set of religious
ideas, or as direct agents of a deity. A monarchy has a king or queen, who sometimes has
absolute power. Power is passed along through the family. A parliamentary system is led by
representatives of the people. Each is chosen as a member of a political party and remains in
power as long as his/her party does. A republic is led by representatives of the voters. Each is
individually chosen for a set period of time. And the last, anarchy, which is as situation where
there is no government.  This can happen after a civil war in a country, when a government has
been destroyed and rival groups are fighting to take its place. 

Another classification of government is according to authority. These are

revolutionary, totalitarian, oligarchy and democracy. In revolutionary, the existing structure is
overthrown by a completely new group. The new group can be very small such as the military or
very large as in a popular revolution. In totalitarian, as said, the country is ruled by a single
political party.  
Votes for alternative candidates and parties are simply not allowed. Citizens are allowed and
'encouraged' to vote, but only for the government's chosen candidates. Oligarchy is a form of
government which consists of rule by an elite group who rule in their own interests, especially
the accumulation of wealth and privilege. Only certain members of society have a valid voice in
the government. Lastly, in a democracy, the government is elected by the people. Everyone who
is eligible to vote has a chance to have their say over who runs the country. 

And now, let’s all focus on our government. What kind of government we have
here in the Philippines? Our country has a presidential form of government. The president
functions as the head of state and head of government, and is also the commander-in-chief of the
armed forces. The political system works under three individual and interdependent branches:
Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. The Executive branch is the law-enforcing body and it is
under the headship of the president. Legislative branch is the law-making body, which is
characterized by a bicameral Congress comprising the Senate and the House of
Representatives. Lastly, the Judicial branch, which is a law-interpreting body that demonstrates
its authority to the Supreme Court as the highest judicial body and presided by a Chief Justice
with 14 Associate Justices; all are appointed by the president under the advice of the Judicial and
Bar Council.

Here in the Philippines, there is a democracy which the people has the power to
choose who will be the one governing the whole nation. In this case, in order to have a good
government, the people must select the right person to become the leader or the president. That
person must have intelligence and strength in making good decisions for our country to be
organized and in order. No one wants to have a dishonest leader, right? That is why; we should
be careful and intelligent enough in choosing the right one. If not, our place will be in chaos; all
are not disciplined, crime is everywhere and all of us are suffering from poverty.

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 As said, the government must do their duties well in order to have a brighter world.
It is not important whether what kind of government a nation has as long as they are doing their
job. The government who does responsibility well is what we call, “good government.”Good
government performs good governance. What is good governance? It is the dynamic interaction
between people, structures, processes and traditions that support the exercise of legitimate
authority in provision of sound leadership, direction, oversight, and control of an entity. It is to
ensure that its purpose is achieved, and that there is proper accounting for the conduct of its
affairs, the use of its resources, and the results of its activities. By this, there is what we call,
“Peace and Order.”

How can we measure good governance? Many studies are done all over the world in
order to measure good governance. Different organizations, agencies, international forums and
cooperation agreements are obsessed with the issue on world governance. Poor governance is
pointed out as problem on why nations are having problems on different aspects of life. In
measuring the governance of a country, studies consider the poverty rate, literacy rate,
corruption, transparency, policies, budgetary administration, environment, services and
programs. This implies that measuring governance involves looking at the policies for the sector,
the institutions that act in it and the quality of the social arrangements to construct a dynamic
vision that gathers impact data for evaluating progress and identifying strong and weak points. It
also provides institutional strengthening and capacity building. Once a country already knows
their weak points, they will know the solution on this. Also, when they know about the strong
points, they will just maintain or improve it more. It is like knowing the status of a nation in
order to know what the right thing to do is.

Government, to be a good one is not as easy as counting numbers. There are no

quick processes to do it well. It is very easy to enumerate all its characteristics but it is difficult
to be done. It requires a lot of work to do. Easier said than done, right? This is why after several
years of having set of policies by the government and making different programs on improving
the different aspects of life, our country has not reached the standards. Maybe you are also
wondering why and asking what is wrong with our system. Are they measuring our country’s
governance?

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