GOVERNMENT, SOCIETY AND ECONOMY

F    General Introduction

In this course, we shall be concerned about the basic concept in the social science. We shall be concerned with the issues such as government, economy and society or government, state and political economy. It will be pertinent that we ask ourselves questions like, “why is there government?”, “What is the difference between government and governance?”, and ‘What is a state?”. We shall also look at the introduction to what we call sustainable development; idea of environment and the different kinds of environmental development. We shall also look at the question of the challenges that the situation of the state poses for us in the contemporary era. We shall discuss about leadership and its various dimensions and problems. We shall also look at development and democracy and the relationship between them.

For proper understanding, we need to distinguish between government, governance and state. The definition of these concepts will constitute our first lesson in the course.

F    Government, Governance, and State.

·                     Government.

Government can be understood in two ways: as an art and as an academic discipline. Government as an art can be defined as an institution of the state. As a science, it can be defined as an academic field of study. It is a machinery which is set up to control the affairs of the state. Better still, government is a group of persons (institution) which makes and enforces laws within a given society for the welfare or well-being of the people.

Government is about the state and the exercise of political power, i.e., when we talk about government, we refer to a specific group of people that exercise power. They are representatives that carry out activities for the common good. In contemporary times, there are other people in the society that carry out activities for the common good. Sometimes, people volunteer to do something for the common good. Therefore we say that government is too narrow in order to capture the way power is exercised. To this effect, the concept of governance is introduced because it tries to encompass both government and non-government in the exercise of power.

·                     Governance

Governance refers to the exercise of power in management of public affairs which usually involves both governmental and non-governmental actors (agencies) in upholding individuals. It is more encompassing than the notion of government. Usually, when we talk about government, we are always talking about the question of accountability, responsibility, transparency, etc, and all kinds of measures or service delivery that goes beyond government into different societies that contribute differently to public affairs.

The idea of governance means that the functions of government are reduced to five basic things, viz,

1. That government should establish a foundation of law to ensure law and order in the society (rule of law)

2. That government should ensure that the framework or the environment for the allocation of resources by making ……..

3. That the government should provide basic social services. Examples: education, roads, water supply and essential services.

4. That the government must protect the poor in the market system

5. That the government should ensure protection of environment to ensure that there is sustainable development, and to ensure that the resources that will be used by the next generation are protected for them.

F    The State.

We can refer to the state as “Government and Legal Order”. One very important definition of state is that given by Marx Weber. According to him, ‘a state is the organisation that enjoys the monopoly of the legislative use of force in the society’. It is an organisation with a particular system of rules and government to enforce those rules. One of the fundamental features of a state is that it is an organisation with its own peculiar rules. The state is a very important concept in political science and Max Weber’s definition is exceptional.

F    The Basic Characteristics of a State.

1. A state has a defined territory over which it exercises authority. The territory might be geographical.

2. It must have a population. Usually, within the territory or geographical area, there are human beings under the control of the state.

3. A state must have a government, and when we talk about government, we refer to its three arms which are:

·                     The Legislative

·                     The Executive and

·                     The Judiciary.

The legislative makes the law; the executive arm executes or carries out the law, while the judiciary interprets the law and passes judgement to it.

4. A state is sovereign (supreme). It recognises no other authority than itself. It enjoys sovereignty and power. In a globalised system, there is a revolution in this sovereignty. No law made by anybody over-rides by the constitutional law of the state. It is supreme to itself and is therefore not accountable to any other authority.

5. A state is permanent. This means that the state, once existed, can never change.

F    The Role of the State.

The question of the role of the state is located within the context of governance, and there are different schools of thoughts concerning that. Generally, as far as the economy is concerned, the debate is usually located within the role of the state vis-à-vis the market.

Before delving into the role of the state, let us know what economy is. In order words, ‘What is Economics?” There have been different definitions of economics given by scholars. One of them, which is generally accepted, was given by Lord Robbins. He defined economics as “a social science which studies about human behaviour as relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses”. The key words in this definition are ‘social science’, ‘ends’, ‘scare means’, ‘alternative uses’.

Economics is concerned with the production of goods and services at the level of demand and supply. In fact, the primary aim of economics is production of resources both in the natural resources and human resources. At the level of production, we have distribution which can be by both the state and the government. Exchange is at the heart of what economics is all about and it brings about relationship between the forces of demand and supply. For the economists, the easiest way to achieve and uphold this relationship is to allow the market to produce what people want and getting what they want from the people. It is worthy of note that it is not only the market that can produce what the people want because sometimes there may be series of problems.

Demand and supply cannot adequately take care of some of the problems caused by damaged or destroyed commodities like oil- spillage. Individuals and other private industries or organisations are therefore encouraged to participate in producing what the people want. For instance, it was when private industries were allowed to manage our communication system by the provision or manufacture of handsets that some of the problems associated with network (NITEL then) came to be rectified and individuals could then be proud of possessing a personal handset.

Economics without the state is virtually impossible. The only thing that Market can achieve is inequality and people always engage themselves in the advantages. It should not be on the shoulder of demand and supply but on that of the state to provide equitable production and distribution. This means that the state should enforce production through the different means needed to ensure the equality that is attainable in a socialist system. The state also has its own problems. An example is the instance of phone mentioned above.

In this context, there are five (5) basic roles the state should play in order to perform effectively and thus aid smooth exchange between the forces of demand and supply in the society. They include:

1. Provision of the foundation for law and order.  The state must provide the foundation for law and order in the society. In other words, without the rule of law, which is the supremacy of the law over and above both the ruler and the ruled, the guarantee of peace and order, and protection of the lives and properties of the citizens in the society, then there will not be any meaningful production and distribution in the economy.

2. Provision of regulative framework. The state should also provide regulative framework so that the market and business can progress. For instance, they should know whether the drug industry is giving us ‘chalk’ instead of ‘Panadol’. They should, in this regard, set up agencies that will ensure the execution of these regulative frameworks, like NAFDAC.

3. Protection of the environment. The state has to protect the environment because as business progresses, one have to think of the future and how to protect the natural resources and avoid exploitation, bearing in mind that natural resources are not renewable. They, the state, should therefore make sure that environmental degradation does not occur. This explains the reason why we have global warming.

4. Protection of the poor and the vulnerable. The state should protect the poor and the vulnerable, like the disabled, so as to ensure that poverty does not last long or gain ground or be recycled in the society.

5. Provision of social amenities and infrastructures. The state should provide basic amenities and other public goods and infrastructures such as roads, education, pipe-borne water, electricity, etc, which other private individuals or bodies cannot provide.

These are regarded as the fundamental laws of the state that balances its role with the market. These five principal roles are considered to be optimum in the sense that when done properly, wealth will be equitably distributed and the end of the debate whether we have a capitalist or socialist state system. If the state goes beyond these, they can run into trouble in order to avoid what is called state failure or market failure.