What is Government? - Revision Notes

 CBSE Class 06 Social Science

Revision Notes
Chapter – 03 Political Science
What is Government?

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Goverment is an administrative organ of a region or a country that makes political decisions to run a country .

Every country needs a government to make decisions and get things done.

Functions of Government .

(i) Maintaining law and order :If there is a dispute or someone has commited a crime, we found that person tried in the court of law.

 

(ii) Providing public facilities   like  electricity, water, hospital , etc. It also does some important things like running the railway services and postal services. 

(iii) Take action on  issues  like poverty , education, health and ensure that citizens have enough food to eat.

(iv)Protect the boundries from enemies.

(v) Undertake relief measures in case of disasters like  earthquakes, floods.

Level of Government:

(i) Government in our  country functions at three  levels- central, state and local.

(ii) Central governments ranks highest among three and is followed by state and local government thereafter.

(iii) Central government looks after nation, state government looks after the states and local government  looks after the villages , towns or cities .

Laws and the Government:

(i) Laws are made by the government and citizens are bound to follow them. Laws need to be enforced for proper functioning of the government. 

(ii) Government  has the power to implement laws.Likewise, the citizen can approach the court if a law is not being followed. 

(iii) Court has  the power to give justice to the aggrieved party. 

Types of Government:

(i) There are  mainly  two forms  of government: Democray and Monarchy 

(ii) In a democracy , people rule themselves through their representatives.  In a democratic government people have a right to choose their representatives.Once elected, these people form the government. In a democracy, the government has to explain each of its actions and has to defend its decisions. For example, India

(iii) In a monarchy , only  the king or queen have  the power to make decisions and govern the country . It  is absolute obedience to the authority and people donot have any right in decision making .Example Saudi Arabia .

Democratic governments:

In India there is a democracy. This achievement is the result of long and action packed struggle of the Indian people. There are many other places where people have also struggled to have democracies.

Universal Adult Franchise

Nowadays, democratic governments are better known as representative democracies. In this kind of democracy, people participate indirectly. They choose their representatives during elections and these representatives meet and make decisions for the entire population. All adults in the country are eligible to vote according to the Universal Adult Franchise(UAF).