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A government is the system to govern a state or community. The Columbia Encyclopedia defines government as "a 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". [5]
The United States federal executive departments are the principal units of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States.They are analogous to ministries common in parliamentary or semi-presidential systems but (the United States being a presidential system) they are led by a head of government who is also the head of state.
Absolute immunity: When absolute immunity applies, a government actor may not be sued for the allegedly wrongful act, even if that person acted maliciously or in bad faith; and; Qualified immunity: When qualified immunity applies, the government actor is shielded from liability only if specific conditions are met, as specified in statute or ...
In the period of the eighteenth century, usually called the Enlightenment, a new justification of the European state developed.Jean-Jacques Rousseau's social contract theory states that governments draw their power from the governed, its 'sovereign' people (usually a certain ethnic group, and the state's limits are legitimated theoretically as that people's lands, although that is often not ...
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) [a] is the common government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, comprising 50 states, five major self-governing territories, several island possessions, and the federal district (national capital) of Washington, D.C ...
The U.S. government being a federal government, officials are elected at the federal (national), state and local levels. All members of Congress, and the offices at the state and local levels are directly elected, but the president is elected indirectly, by an Electoral College whose electors represent their state and are elected by popular vote.
Democracy contrasts with forms of government where power is not vested in the general population of a state, such as authoritarian systems. Historically a rare and vulnerable form of government, [10] democratic systems of government have become more prevalent since the 19th century, in particular with various waves of democratization. [11]
A state should not be confused with a government; a government is an organization that has been granted the authority to act on the behalf of a state. [22] Nor should a state be confused with a society; a society refers to all organized groups, movements, and individuals who are independent of the state and seek to remain out of its influence. [22]