Evolution of Government

Since time immemorial, men organized themselves in order to attain their needs and wants.

Four political organizations that existed with man’s development

1. Band
2. Tribe
3. Chiefdom
4. State

Government – agency thru which the will of the state is formulated expressed and carried out.

ELECTIVE GOVERNMENTS AND UNITARY GOVERNMENTS

Elective government defined. ---An elective government is one in which those who manage the
affairs of the state are chosen by the people or by those who constitute the electoral body. It is
a term used synonymously with popular government. The election may be made directly by the
people or by the people or indirectly through electoral colleges.

Unitary government defined. ---A unitary government is one in which the powers of
government are concentrated in one supreme organ from which all local governing authorities
derive their existence and powers. The essence of this form of government is the fact that a
single organization has been created by the sovereign power---generally the people---through
the constitution, to which is left the task of providing for the territorial distribution of
governmental powers with which it is invested. The central government may create political
areas for its own purposes, being free at any time to alter these subordinate districts in their
organization and powers or even to abolish them together.

Historical basis ---There are several reasons underlying the establishment and development of
present-day unitary governments. A unitary government of a certain country might have been
established in order to make more effective and more felt the authority of a ruling sovereign.
The divisions of the country---its provinces and municipalities or countries and shires or
prefectures, subprefectures, and arrondissements---are merely administrative devices to
facilitate the exercise of the ruler’s authority; and the local officials are but his agents to carry
out his will. The foundations of the French unitary government were laid down by Napoleon for
this purpose. The unitary system of government in the Philippines was established by the
Philippine Commission to facilitate the extension of American sovereignty to the Philippines.
This form of government might have been deliberately established by the people of a country
because it was desired to weld together strong, antagonistic internal elements or because the
people were not politically educated enough to exercise a full measure of local self-
government, thereby needing a considerable supervision by a strong central organization.

Advantages and disadvantages of unitary government. ---Among the advantages of a unitary

government may be mentioned the following: (1) Its political machinery is greatly simplified,
which fact results in a great economy in governmental expenditures, thru the avoidance of
duplication of work. Unlike in a federal government, there is no set of local officials separate
from and independent of officials separate from and independent of officials of the national
government. The local officials are part and parcel of the whole governmental machinery,
looking in their duty to enforce not only local ordinances and regulations but also national
laws. Consequently, the number of officials who ultimately are in the payroll of the whole
people is reduced, with the financial burden of the people correspondingly decreased. (2) It is
easy to allocate responsibility for any governmental anomaly, because of the generally
hierarchical organization of the political machinery. There could be no shifting of blame from
the local officials to the national officials for irregularities in the administration of justice, for
inefficiency in the operation of roads, and for laxity in the administration of sanitation and of
schools. There is at least a department to which the erring officials belong, with its head who
must have to do the explaining. (3) It is easy to bring about a unity of program both in
legislation and in administration because of the lodgment of powers must be given to the local
governments. Unlike in a federal government, it is possible for people to be governed under
one marriage law, one divorce law, one insurance law, one labor law, etc.

There are, however, some disadvantages of a unitary government. In the first place, the
concentration of too much power in one organization, with the power to create other organs
as its agents in the localities and to destroy them when it so pleases, is conducive to the growth
of despotism. In the second place, the institution of this government presupposes
acquaintance of the officials of the central organization with local conditions everywhere,
which is not a fact. The result is that legislative and administrative measures are passed which
may be beneficial to some localities but are detrimental to others because of their peculiarly
different conditions. This fact may retard the progress of some communities because they are
forced to grow within certain moulds that have been adopted for others under different
situations. In the third place, a unitary government destroys local initiative and, consequently,
breeds indifference to the management of the government. The people of the localities
operate within the limits of certain powers enumerated for them, having no freedom to meet
their own peculiar problems beyond these circumscriptions. The logic of their situation may
dictate that they can raise more revenues from taxing a certain activity found only within
their community; but they can not do so unless there is authority therefore in their defined
powers. They may wish to operate a certain undertaking to meet their own peculiar needs, but
they are barred from doing so unless the central government has vested in their government
that power or unless it will grant the same to them.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS

Federal government defined.---A federal government is a form of government in which

governmental powers are by the common sovereign distributed between a central
government and the local governments, each being supreme within its own sphere. Unlike in
a unitary government where the local governmental agencies are creations of the central
government, the latter having the authority to determine their powers and their existence, the
local governments in a federal state owe their creation and their powers to the common
sovereign who defines through the constitution their organization and their powers. Thus, in
a sense, the central government and the local governments are coordinate, deriving their
authority from the direct grant of the people and not being free to encroach upon the field of
authority marked for each by the constitution.

Historical basis.--- A federal government might have been established in a certain country as a
compromise scheme between the ardent supporters of a strong national government and
those who desire to have a strong local government. The federal governments of the United
States, Canada, Australia, and Switzerland were adopted not because the framers of the
constitutions really believed in the superiority of the federal to the unitary type but because
that represented the best compromise between having a strong unified government at the
expense of local autonomy and strong local governments, enjoying complete autonomy, even
at the expense of external unity. Other countries having the federal type adopted it merely
because it had been successful in the United States. Such were Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico.

Conditions necessary for the establishment and maintenance of a successful federal

government. ---There are certain conditions necessary for the formation and maintenance of a
successful federal government. First, the component political communities must be sufficiently
similar in race, history, and tradition to want really a strong nationality and political union.
Second, there must be a strong feeling of local unity which demands a division of political
power so as to preserve local individuality. Third, there must be a written constitution
defining the powers to be exercised by the central government and those by the local
governments, so that neither could encroach upon the proper sphere of the other. Fourth,
there must be a common tribunal with the power to interpret this constitution, thereby
preventing the encroachment by one government upon the domain of the other as laid down in
the fundamental law.
Distribution of powers under a federal government.---The powers to be exercised by the two
sets of government are defined in the constitution. There are two methods of distributing
these governmental powers. First, the powers to be exercised by the central government may
be enumerated, the residuary powers being vested in the local governments, except those
specifically prohibited to them. Second, the powers to be exercised by the local governments
may be enumerated, the central government exercising the residuary powers, together with
those specifically enumerated. The first is that followed in the government of the United
States; the second, in that of Canada.

Advantages of federal government.---The federal system of government has been highly praised
by eminent political writers, like Montesquieu, De Tocqueville, Sidgwick, Bryce, and many
others. These advantages have been summed up by an American writer as follows: “It affords a
means of uniting into a powerful state, commonwealths more or less diverse in character and
having dissimilar institutions, without extinguishing wholly their separate existences. It
furnishes the means of maintaining an equilibrium of centrifugal and centripetal forces in a
state of widely different tendencies…” It excels all other forms of government in the
effectiveness with which it combines the advantages of nationality, unity and power with those
of local autonomy. It secures at the same time all the advantages of uniformity in the regulation
of affairs of general concern with those of diversity in the regulation of local affairs. Instead of
concentrating the powers of the state in a single organ or set of organs, as in the case of the
unitary state, federalism distributes it between a common central government and a number
of local governments, and thus prevents the rise of a single despotism absorbing all political
power and menacing the liberties of the people. By securing the advantages of self-
government for the people in those affairs which are peculiarly local to them, it reconciles
them to the loss of power which they have sustained through the surrender of their control
over other affairs to the general government. Furthermore, through the right of self-
government , the interest of the people in local affairs is stimulated and preserved, they are
educated in their civic duties, and this in turn reacts upon the character of the local
administration. Federalism, observes Bryce, allows experiments in local legislation and
administration which could not safely be tried in a large country having a unitary system of
government. At the same time it supplies the best means of developing a new and vast country
by allowing the particular localities to develop their special needs in the way they think best.”

Defects of federal government.---The operation of federal governments has revealed a number

of defects. First, there being a set of officials of the central government and another of the
component members of the federalism, there is generally an overlapping of functions,
resulting in waste and confusion. Ultimately, the people bear the expense of maintaining this
complex governmental machinery. Second, the two sets of officials being coordinate because
belonging to two sets of government that are independent, each being supreme within its own
sphere, it is not very easy to secure unity. This lack of unity works out disadvantageously both
in foreign and in domestic affairs. The states acting on their reserved powers oftentimes pass
measures that make difficult the compliance of the national government with its treaty
obligations. States in pursuance of their powers legislate differently on matters that are by their
nature common to all the people of the body politic, oftentimes resulting in a state of confusion
for all. Laws on such subjects as marriage, divorce, taxation, and insurance are very diversified
when they should be uniform to make easier the problems of administration. Third, with the
powers of each government derived from the constitution, and with the latter generally rigid, it
results that it is difficult to meet social and economic matters that need expeditious action for
their solution or readjustment. Under a unitary government, it is easy to take care of matters
that need quick legislation or other treatment because the powers of government are vested
in one central organization.

Government of the Philippine Islands is a term that refers to the corporate governmental
entity through which the functions of government are exercised throughout the Philippine
Islands, including, save as the contrary appears from context, the various arms by though which
political authority is made effective in said Islands, whether pertaining to the central
government or to the provincial or municipal branches or other forms of local government.

Characteristics of the PG:

1. Democratic republican
2. Constitutional
3. Civil
4. Presidential
5. Paternalistic
6. De jure

De facto – exist in fact but not based on law

Purpose of the Government

1. For the good of mankind

2. For the benefit of the governed
3. That we may grow in civilization
 4. That we may develop materially, mentally, morally, and spiritually

Doctrine of Parens Patriae

 The government is the guardian of the private rights of the people.

Test of a good government

 The way it tends to increase the sum of good qualities in the governed, both individually
and collectively

Democratic government – a government for, by, and from the people

Republican state – a state wherein all government authority emanates from the people and are
exercised by representatives chosen by the people.
Principles of Philippines Government

Rule of Law

A democratic government is by laws and not of men. The system of public administration is
based on the Constitution. No one, including the Chief Executive is above the law. All public
officials are subject to judicial process. Thus a public administrator decides and acts on legal and
on the basis of authority granted to him.

Sovereignty of the People

In democracies, the people are supreme. Sovereignty resides in the people and are exercised by
representatives chosen by them. The government is established by the people for their own
benefit and protection and to enact and implement policies and programs which are necessary
to make the people live happily, decently, and peacefully. Thus the government must be
administered in accordance with the will of the people.

Separation of Powers

The Constitution, by the definition itself, is a written instrument by which the fundamental
powers of the government are established, limited, and defined, and by which these powers
are distributed among the several departments. Thus the government is divided into three
branches which are co-equal, coordinate, and independent of each other.
Hence each branch should help and coordinate with each other In the discharge of their
functions.

Check and Balance

This principle is intended to establish equilibrium of powers so that no branch of the

government can develop to be too powerful to absorb and kill altogether other agencies and
consequently impair the liberty of the people.

Doctrine of Unity of Objective

The resources of the government and the efforts of its administration should be directed
towards the attainment of national goals and objectives. The President serves as the focal point
of unification. He is accountable to the people for all the actions and behaviors of those under
his command.

Power of Delegation

Since the person at the top of the organizational pyramid cannot attend to all details necessary
in the discharge of his executive functions, he can exercise the process of delegation – that of
giving authority commensurate with responsibility to those below him, thereby allowing
decision-making at every practical level. However, the delegator is still responsible for the
results. By delegating, he has merely given someone else authority to act for him in order to
free himself for other more significant work.
Service Concept

Public service is a public trust. Thus, one works for the government with service as the primary
motive and not for profit.

Difference between Government and Private Administration

I. Objective of the Operations

Government agencies and instrumentalities although proprietary in character are supposed to

provide service to meet public demands and interests. It is not dependent on earnings for its
existence. On the other hand, private administration are operated on the basis of profits
although their activities may be public in character such as those of public utilities. These have
to gain and not to lose to be able to stay in business.

II. Operating Environment

The operating environment of a government office is bureaucratic and political in nature while
that of the private business enterprise are business-like and non-political. Bureaucratic
management under a democracy is management in accordance with law and budget while
private administration is generally directed by profit motive.

The government operates on a budget of funds that comes from the taxpayer; hence the
government is accountable to the people. Governmental decisions and actions are subject to
public scrutiny and often to legislative criticism and investigation because government is
expected to serve public interest. Meanwhile, the private administrator may also be subject to
a similar inquiry as the scope of public control over business increases but he is more free to
discharge his functions under the “laissez faire” policy or free enterprise system.