INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS

PUB 320: MANAGING
INTERGOVERNMENTAL
RELATIONS
Lecturer: Mr. Paulo Faty

Part I: Introduction to
Government
Defining government
Rationale for government
Types government
The state

DEFINING GOVERNMENT
► A government is:
► the system by which a state or community is governed.
► refers to the particular executive in control of a state at a
given time
► refers to the larger system by which any state is organized.
► In the case of its broad definition, government normally
consists of legislators, administrators, and arbitrators.
► Government is the means by which state policy is
enforced, as well as the mechanism for determining the
policy of the state.

DEFINING GOVERNMENT
► 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.
► A government describes the day-to-day operations of a
state. The rules of a government are determined by its
regime.

Government is made up of the formal institutions and
processes through which decisions are made for a group
of people.
What Is Government?
Three main components:
• People—Elected officials with authority and control over others;
public servants who carry out day-to-day governmental business
• Power—Legislative to make laws; executive to carry out, enforce,
and administer laws; judicial to interpret laws and to settle disputes
• Policy—Decision made by government in pursuit of a goal; can be a
law, a government program, or a set of government actions

The State
► Sovereignty—Every state (nation) is sovereign.
 It has supreme and absolute power within its own
territory.
 It can decide its own foreign and domestic policies.
 It is neither subordinate not responsible to any other
authority.
► Government
 Every state is politically organized
 Gov. is the institution through which society makes and
enforces its public policies.
 This includes the power to use force if necessary to
compel people to accept its rule.

Populatio
n
Territory
Sovereign
ty
Governme
nt
a body of
people,
living in a
defined space,
with the power to make
and enforce laws
without having to check
with any higher
and with an
organization to do
this.

Populati
onDefinition: People who are the members or
citizens of a state
 The size of the population doesn’t matter
 Population has a big influence on the type of
government chosen by the state:
• Is the population rural or urban?
• What do people do for jobs?
• Do people get along or disagree on
basic issues?

Territory
 A state must have set boundaries, but they
are not always agreed on.
 Boundaries can change in three ways:
• war – people win or lose territory
• negotiation – people agree to trade
territory
• purchase – states can buy territory from
other states
Definition: the area in which
a state’s rule applies

Sovereig
ntyDon’t worry guys!
“Sovereignty” is just a big
word that means a state
has the ability to rule within
its border as it chooses…
Remember the definition of
“state”? It says, “…with the power
to make and enforce laws without
having to check with any higher
authority…”?

Because of sovereignty…
 states can set their own foreign policy
and agendas.
 states are all equal in theory, but in
reality that isn’t always the case.
Definition: the ability to rule
absolutely within a given territory
Sovereig
nty

Govern
ment
That’s s!
Definition: the organization that makes and
enforces the laws
 Government has many roles that
all involve making public policy, but
there are four main ways their
governing affects the public…
Public policy is the laws
and rules that affect the
public!

Govern
ment
That’s us!
 Government has many roles that
all involve making public policy, but
there are four main ways their
governing affects the public…
• Keeping Order
• Protecting the Country
• Providing Services
• Making Economic Decisions
Definition: the organization that
makes and enforces the laws

Origins of State
 Historically, anthropologists believe that there
are four main ways in which states formed out
of anarchy. They occurred chronologically until
the point we are at today.
►Force Theory
►Evolution Theory
►Divine Right Theory
►Social Contract Theory

Force Theory
 One person or group claimed control over an
area and forced all within to submit to their will.
 An individual or group claimed control over a
territory and forced the population to
submit.
 In this way, the state became sovereign, and
those in control formed a government.

Evolution Theory
 Natural development from early family
 Head of family was the “government”.
 Original family became a network of families—a
clan, then a tribe.
 When tribe turned to agriculture, abandoning
nomadic traits, the state was born.

Divine Right Theory
 The state was created by God and He gave
those of Royal birth the “divine right” to rule.
 Present day democracy rose out of challenge to
this theory.

Social Contract Theory
 Most significant to American political system
 Locke, Harrington, Hobbes and Rousseau developed this theory.
 State of nature was nasty and harsh.
 A voluntary act of free people agreed to a contract, to create a
state.
 Those within the specified area agreed to give up to the state as
much power as was needed to promote the well-being of the state.
 This contract, a constitution, the members of the state created a
gov. to exercise the powers the people had granted to the state.
 The state exists ONLY to serve the will of the people, they are the
sole source of political power, and they are free to give or withhold
that power as they choose.
 Concepts promoted by this theory are directly related to the U.S.
Constitution: popular sovereignty, limited gov., individual rights.

Purpose for Forming Government
►To Form a More Perfect Union: US v GB
►To Establish Justice: Fair Laws
►To ensure Domestic Tranquility: Peace at
Home
►To Provide for Common Defense: Army
►To Promote the General Welfare: Public
Schools
►To Secure the Blessings of Liberty: Freedom

Classifying Government
►There are three major classifications for
governments
 Unitary
 Federal
 Confederate

Unitary Government
► Unitary Government—is a centralized
government in which all powers held by the
government belong to a single agency.
 They often create smaller, local governments for
convenience, but all their power comes from the central
source.
 NOT necessarily a dictator.
 Most governments in the world are unitary… Great
Britain.
 Can be both unitary and democratic, or unitary and
dictatorship.

Federal Government
 Federal Government—power of the
government is divided between a central
agency and local agencies.

Confederate Government
► Confederate Government—an alliance of
independent states.
► Power to handle ONLY those matters member
states have assigned it.
► Typically, limited powers. Not power to make laws
that effect individuals, but that affect the states—
i.e. defense, foreign commerce, etc.
► Allows for cooperation in matters of common
concern while still retaining separate identities.

Relationship between
Legislative and Executive
Branches
►The two types of government where there is
both a legislative and executive branch are
 Presidential
 Parliamentary
►Each of these has a gives a different
perspective on the relationship that occurs
between these two branches.

Presidential Government
►Presidential Government—features a
separation of powers between executive
and legislative branches of gov.
 Two branches are independent and co-equal.
 President is chosen independently of legislature,
and has broad powers not subject to direct
control of legislative branch.
 The two branches regularly have several powers
which can check, block, or restrain the other
branch.

Parliamentary Government
► Parliamentary Government—the executive is made up
of the prime minister or premier and their cabinet.
► They, themselves are members of the legislative branch.
► Prime Minister is leader of the majority party.
► P.M. must have parliament approval of cabinet.
► Executive is chosen by legislature, part of legislature, and
subject to legislative control.
► Remain in office only as long as has confidence of
majority party in parliament.
► Parliamentary government does not experience dead
lock, as can happen in a presidential gov., b/w executive
and legislative branches. However, means there are no
checks and balances.
► Majority of world’s gov. are parliamentary.

Under Dictatorship
 Those who rule cannot be held responsible to
the will of the people.
 Gov. is NOT accountable for its policies, or the
ways they are carried out.
 Modern dictatorships tend to be totalitarian,
they exercise authoritarian rule over every
aspect of human affairs (ex. Hitler, Mussolini,
Kim Jon-Il)

Under Democracy
► Supreme political authority rests with the
people.
► Direct Democracy (Rousseau) vs.
Representative Democracy (Locke/
Jefferson) [i.e. Republic]

U.S.A U.K. FRA Cuba
Unitary * * *
Federal *
Confederacy
Presidential * *
Parliamentary *
Democracy * * *
Dictatorship *

Communism v Socialism
SOCIALISM
► Marx formulated the theory
 He called it Communism
 Today it is called SOCIALISM
► Poor will rise up and kill the
rich/ overthrow the gov’t.
controlled by the rich
► A DICTATOR will take power for
a brief period of time to divide
up all the property of the rich
and redistribute to all, according
to need.
► DICTATOR will step down and
government will be run by a
direct democracy
COMMUNISM
► NEVER in history has the
DICTATOR stepped down
► Not Marx’s intention
► Examples: USSR, Cuba, China

PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT
► Republicanism
► Separation of Powers
► Limited Government
► Popular Sovereignty
► Federalism
► Checks and balances
► Individual Rights

Popular Sovereignty
► The power to rule comes from the people.
► “Consent of the Governed”
► The Constitution established popular sovereignty
in the preamble,
“We the People. . . establish
this Constitution for the
United States of America.“

Republicanism
► Republicanism is based the belief that people exercise
their power by voting for their political representatives.
► A republic is a form of government in which the supreme
power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is
exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly
by them.
► In a republic, people elect others to represent them in the
government.

Federalism
► Federalism is a system of
government in which the
states and national
government share powers.
► The Constitution assigns
certain powers to the
national government. These
are delegated powers.
► Powers kept by the states
are reserved powers.
► Powers shared or exercised
by national and state
governments are known as
concurrent powers.

Separation of Powers
► Established in order to
avoid having too much
power might fall into
the hands of a single
group
► This principle creates
the division of basic
government roles
into 3 branches. No
one branch is given all
the power.

Checks and Balances
► Based on the
philosophy of Baron
de Montesquieu, an
18th-century French
thinker, "Power should
be a check to power.“
► Each branch of
government can
exercise checks, or
controls, over the
other branches.
Though the branches
of government are
separate, they rely on
one another to
perform the work of
government.
► This ensures that the
branches work
together fairly.

Limited Government
► Everyone, citizens and powerful leaders alike, must
obey the law.
► Individuals or groups cannot twist or bypass the law to
serve their own interests.

Individual Rights
►
The Bill of Rights guarantees certain
individual rights, or personal liberties and
privileges.

Democracy
► 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.
► It is distinct from governments controlled by a
particular social class or group (aristocracy;
oligarchy) or by a single person (despotism;
dictatorship; monarchy).
► A democracy is determined either directly or
through elected representatives.

Autocracy
►Government by a single person having
unlimited power; despotism (domination
through threat of punishment and violence)
.

Oligarchy
►A government in which a few people such
as a dominant clan or clique have power.

Monarchy
► A monarchy has a king, queen, emperor or
empress.
► The ruling position can be passed on to the
ruler’s heirs.
► In some traditional monarchies, the monarch
has absolute power.
► But a constitutional monarchy, like the UK,
also has a democratic government that limits
the monarch's control.

Dictatorship
► A country ruled by a
single leader. The leader
has not been elected
and may use force to
keep control.
►In a military
dictatorship, the army is
in control.

Anarchy
►Anarchy is a 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.
►Anarchists are people who believe that
government is a bad thing in that it
stops people organizing their own lives.

Capitalist
►In a capitalist or free-market country,
people can own their own businesses and
property.
►People can also buy services for private use,
such as healthcare.
►But most capitalist governments also
provide their own education, health and
welfare services.

Communist
►In a communist country, the government
owns property such as businesses and
farms.
►It provides its people's healthcare,
education and welfare.

Republic
►A republic is a country that has no
monarch.
►The head of the country is usually an
elected president.

Revolutionary
►If a government is
overthrown by force,
the new ruling group
is sometimes called a
revolutionary
government.

Totalitarian
►This is a country with
only one political
party.
►People are forced to
do what the
government tells them
and may also be
prevented from
leaving the country.

• Governments are formed through historical circumstances.
• Today most countries have some form of democratic government,
either a presidential system or a parliamentary system.
• President—Elected by the people
for a limited term of office
• Head of state and in charge of
executive branch
• Deals with cabinet members, policy,
armed forces, foreign affairs,
domestic legislation
• Powers checked by legislative
branch
Presidential
• Most democracies modeled after
British system
• Executive and legislative combined
• Prime minister chosen by and from
parliament (elected legislature);
member of majority party
• Appoints cabinet members from
majority party
Parliamentary
Presidents and Parliaments

INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS

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