Government · Lesson 1

Basic concepts: state, power, authority, sovereignty

JAMBWAECNECO

What the syllabus asks

JAMB: Basic concepts in government: power, authority, legitimacy, sovereignty; society, state, nation, nation-state; political processes: political socialisation, political participation, political culture

WAEC: Meaning and scope of government (as an institution of the state, as a process or art of governing, as an academic field of study); basic concepts: state, society, nation, power, authority, legitimacy, sovereignty, democracy, political culture and political socialisation

NECO: Meaning and scope of government (as an institution of the state, as a process or art of governing, as an academic field of study); basic concepts: state, society, nation, power, authority, legitimacy, sovereignty, democracy, political culture and political socialisation

What you will learn

Explain the three meanings of government.
Define the state and state its four elements, and distinguish state, society, nation and nation-state.
Define power, influence, authority and legitimacy and show how they are related.
Explain sovereignty, its features, types and limitations.
Explain political socialisation and its agents.
Describe types of political culture and forms of political participation, including reasons for apathy.

Key points

Government: an institution of the state, the process of governing, and an academic field of study.
State: population, defined territory, government and sovereignty; permanent and abstract, unlike government.
Society is the wider community; a nation shares identity; a nation-state is where state and nation coincide; Nigeria is multinational.
Power compels through sanctions; influence persuades.
Authority is legitimate power; Weber: traditional, charismatic, legal-rational.
Legitimacy is acceptance of the right to rule; it comes from elections, constitutionality, performance and tradition.
Sovereignty: supreme and final power; internal and external; legal, political, popular, de facto; limited by constitution, treaties and opinion.
Democracy: rule by the people, directly or through representatives.
Political socialisation: learning political values through family, school, peers, religion, media, parties and government agencies.
Political culture (Almond and Verba): parochial, subject, participant; participation can be active or passive; apathy weakens democracy.

Start here: What is government? Three meanings

Every morning in Nigeria, millions of decisions are made that affect you before you even leave the house. Who decided the price of electricity? Who decided the school calendar? Who decided which roads get repaired? Behind these decisions stands government. The WAEC syllabus asks you to understand government in three senses.

(a) Government as an institution of the state

Government as an institution is the machinery or agency through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed and carried out. It is made up of the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, together with the people who work in them.

When we say "the government has increased the minimum wage", we mean this institution. In Nigeria, government exists at three levels (tiers): federal, state and local. The institution is permanent even though the people in it change at elections.

(b) Government as a process or art of governing

Here government means the activity of ruling: making laws, implementing policies, settling disputes, collecting taxes and maintaining order. A school prefect organising a class, a village head settling a land dispute and a governor signing a budget are all engaged in the process of governing. This sense stresses how power is exercised.

(c) Government as an academic field of study

Government is also a subject, the one you are studying now. As a discipline it examines the state, its institutions, political behaviour, ideas and the relations between states. At university level it is usually called Political Science. It borrows from history, economics, law, sociology and philosophy.

Worked example 1.1

Identify the meaning of "government" in each sentence: (a) "Kemi is reading Government at the University of Ibadan." (b) "The government of Enugu State has built a new hospital." (c) "Good government requires consultation with the people."

(a) A subject being studied: academic field of study.
(b) The body that acts for the state: institution.
(c) The way ruling is done: process or art of governing.

(a) field of study; (b) institution; (c) process

Why do we need government?

To maintain law and order and protect lives and property.
To defend the territory from external attack.
To provide public goods such as roads, schools and hospitals.
To settle disputes through courts.
To protect citizens’ rights and promote their welfare.
To manage the economy and conduct foreign relations.

⚠️ Common mistake: treating "government" and "state" as the same thing. The government is only one element of the state, the agency that acts for it. Governments come and go; the state continues.

Try it yourself. Which meaning of government is used in: "The chairman of the local council governed with fairness"?

Show solution

The process or art of governing: it describes how he ruled.

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Practice questions

1. Which is NOT an essential element of a state?

A political party
Population
Defined territory
Sovereignty

Show answer

A: A political party
The four elements: population, territory, government, sovereignty.

2. The state differs from government in that the state is

temporary
only the civil service
the same as a political party
permanent while government changes

Show answer

D: permanent while government changes
Governments come and go; the state continues.

3. Power is best defined as the ability to

vote in elections
make money
compel obedience, backed by sanctions
persuade without force

Show answer

C: compel obedience, backed by sanctions
Influence persuades; power compels.

4. Legitimate power is called

sovereignty
authority
influence
coercion

Show answer

B: authority
Authority = power accepted as rightful.

5. Max Weber's types of authority are

traditional, charismatic and legal-rational
executive, legislative and judicial
direct, indirect and mixed
legal, political and popular

Show answer

A: traditional, charismatic and legal-rational
Weber's three ideal types.

Key words

Government: The institution through which the state makes and enforces decisions; also the process of governing and the study of it.
State: An organised political community with a population, a defined territory, a government and sovereignty.
Society: A group of people living together with shared rules, institutions and relationships.
Nation: A group of people united by common history, culture, language, ancestry or a sense of shared identity.
Nation-state: A state whose population largely forms one nation.
Multinational state: A state containing several nations or ethnic nationalities, e.g. Nigeria.
Power: The ability to influence or compel others to act as one wishes, if necessary by force or sanctions.
Influence: The ability to change others’ behaviour by persuasion, not compulsion.
Authority: The recognised right to exercise power; legitimate power.
Legitimacy: The acceptance by the governed that a government’s power is rightful.
Sovereignty: The supreme, final and independent power of the state.
De jure sovereignty: Legal sovereignty: the body that has the legal right to make final decisions.

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