The Rule of Governments

"Grandpa, my government book says we elect representatives but I have heard you say that we do not. You said we elect rulers. Which is it?"

"Yes, boy, I made the claim once in debate that we elect our rulers. Given the fact that we usually refer to them as representatives I better clarify the idea. Now, first of all, I will grant that when we speak of the word ruler the first thought is to think of a dictator or a monarch. And at one time, this thought would be true because all nations were headed by one of the two. It remains true even up to today in a big part of the world.

However, we must also add that rule of this kind was also forced rule in most cases if not all cases. Both, a monarch and a dictator ruled over the people by force. His word was law and it was his word that was enforced. Furthermore, at one time, it was even justified morally by declaring he had the divine right to rule. The people declared their allegiance to the king or dictator.

Now, just from this we can also add one more element, the form of government that existed. One was a dictatorial form of government while the other is a monarchial form of government. Another element that must be considered is the fact that a monarchial government is a dictatorial form of government but a dictatorial form of government is not a monarchial form of government

From this, we can see that the ruler of a nation can also be declared as synonymous with the government of a nation. They are one and the same thing. Now we can expand upon this concept by declaring that while a country may have a dictatorial government the form of government can be identified differently. Nazism, fascism, and communism are all forms of governments that are commonly known forms of government with dictators. We even have had republican form of governments with dictatorial rule. In addition, in each case the government was seen as being synonymous with the ruler. Reason; it was the dictator or monarch that did the actual governing of a nation.

It is people who rule and every government is made up of people filling the position as determined by the form of government installed. A government without people cannot exist, it cannot rule. People who rule constitute a government. A government enacts laws. A government enforces the laws it enacts. A government determines the legality of the laws. Moreover, the government of any state represents that state in all state transactions.

The Constitution gave the right to add amendments to governments. It is the government that has the power to declare and wage wars. The Armed Forces are under the control of the government. As for absolute power, the government has the right to declare martial law. Finally, it is persons who has the authority to exercise the powers of government.

Now, for those who believe that we live in a country without rulers does not our government possess all the same powers as a country that is governed by a ruler? So, if someone wants to say we do not elect our rulers they are going to have to come up with a definition of government that I have never heard of yet."

The definition of the word rule (verb) is the following;
Governing power or its possession or use; authority. (American Heritage Dictionary)
Exercise authority over; as of nations. (Hyperdictionary.)
Govern, reign(Thesaurus.com)

Does not those definitions describe the duties and power of our government? The only thing different from previous forms of government is the fact we took absolute power away from one man and divided it up among 545 men thus diminishing the power of any one man. The only power he actually possesses is the power that comes from being a member of a group of men. The group possesses the power and it is the same power as a monarch, absolute power. And that is what we call government, boy. And that is what each person should have on his mind as he is entering the voting booth."

I just sat there dumbfounded by the words grandpa was saying. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It seemed to be describing our government in a way that was totally foreign to what my teacher in school was saying.