government

government system of social control under which the right to make laws, and the right to enforce them, is vested in a particular group in society. There are many classifications of government. According to the classical formula, governments are distinguished by whether power is held by one man, a few, or a majority. Today, it is common to distinguish between types of government on the basis of institutional organization and the degree of control exercised over the society. Organizationally, governments may be classified into parliamentary or presidential systems, depending on the relationship between executive and legislature. Government may also be classified according to the distribution of power at different levels. It may be unitary—i.e., with the central government controlling local affairs—or it may be federated or confederated, according to the degree of autonomy of local government. The basic law determining the form of government is called the constitution and may be written, as in the United States, or largely unwritten, as in Great Britain. Modern governments perform many functions besides the traditional ones of providing internal and external security, order, and justice; most are involved in providing welfare services, regulating the economy, and establishing educational systems. The extreme case of governmental regulation of every aspect of people's lives is totalitarianism .

Bibliography: See R. M. MacIver, The Web of Government (rev. ed. 1965); S. H. Beer, Patterns of Government (3d ed. 1973); G. A. Almond and G. B. Powell, Comparative Politics: A Developmental Approach (1966); S. E. Finer, Comparative Government (1970).

GOVERNMENT. In GRAMMAR, the way in which the use of one word requires another word to take a particular form, especially in highly inflected languages. In LATIN, prepositions govern nouns: ad is followed by an accusative of movement (ad villam towards the villa), in by either an accusative of movement (in villam into the villa) or an ablative of location (in villa in the villa). Though the concept is not strictly applicable to a mildly inflected language like English, prepositions require object pronouns where they exist: of me (not *of I), to them (not *to they), for us (not *for we). The term is usually contrasted with agreement or concord, a condition in which two words interact. Some grammarians extend the term to the way in which some verbs require a particular preposition before a following noun phrase, as in ‘We insist on seeing you tomorrow’ and ‘I will not compromise with them on a matter like this.’

gov·ern·ment / ˈgəvər(n)mənt/ • n. 1. [treated as sing. or pl.] the governing body of a nation, state, or community: an agency of the federal government| [as adj.] government controls. ∎  the system by which a nation, state, or community is governed: a secular, pluralistic, democratic government. ∎  the action or manner of controlling or regulating a nation, organization, or people: rules for the government of the infirmary. ∎  the group of persons in office at a particular time; administration: the election of the new government. ∎  another term for political science. ∎  (governments) all bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury or other federal agencies. 2. Gram. the relation between a governed and a governing word. DERIVATIVES: gov·ern·men·tal / ˌgəvər(n)ˈmentl/ adj. gov·ern·men·tal·ly / ˌgəvər(n)ˈmentl-ē/ adv.