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In governing a society, how is the government efficient?
A society is a group of people who interact and associate with each other on a regular base. These people are known to have same cultural beliefs or background experience. Mostly a society is made up of people within the same geographical boundaries, but experience and social attributes can form a society of people who are not within the same society like the law society (Johnson, 1987). A government on the other hand is the body of authority mandated by the people to control the society and ensure there is social order.
The current human society is a complex social unit; this is because it is made up of people from different cultural backgrounds and beliefs, who have diversified opinions about issues. This means that there is bound to be disagreements.
An efficient government is one that embraces democracy; this means it is a government by the people, from the people and for the people. It is never based on coercion or dictatorship, but on the opinions of the majority public. The leaders are elected by the people and are entrusted with the capacity to deliver the peoples wishes if they do not perform then the public still has the authority to remove them from power (Wormuth, 1946). Lack of democracy can eventually lead to war and anguish like what is currently happening in Syria.
The government should base its rules and laws on a constitution that helps in creating equality and equal opportunities to all. The constitution is at the heart of the country. The constitution should have been promulgated by the people in a referendum and was their choice. Due to the presence of a constitution, the rule of law should always apply to the society. Rule of law means that law is law unto itself. It means that the society lives under the sword of the law and everybody is expected to uphold and respect the law at all times. No one is to be termed to be above the law, regardless of the elective position that they hold (Wormuth, 1946).
Efficiency is a government also means that there should be bureaucracy. This is a rational way of governing that ensures power and authority flows from people who have a higher position to those below. The roles of each one should be clearly outlined. This means that orders should come from the president, then to the vice president and then flow downwards (Barclay, 1990). This ensures that there is accountability and responsibility for the outcomes. The ministers and secretaries of state should be hired based on technical qualifications and experience that shows that they can be able to deliver appropriately.
There should be centralization of policies and decentralization of power. Centralization of policies ensures that the policies are made from one forum that analyzes the constitution and the budget of the country. This is because the national funds must be centralised to enhance competency (Barclay, 1990). For instance all the money collected from taxes and fines should all be directed to the treasury, this should also be point where all the money from the government comes from. Decentralization of power by creating local government also helps in efficiency. This is because local government are mandated to deal with issues at the grass root level while the national government deals with issues at the national level.
References
Johnson A.W, (1987), The Evolution of the human society ; From Foraging Group to Agrarian State, Stanford University Press, Stanford California.
Wormuth, Francis,(1946), The Origins of Modern Constitutionalism, Oxford University Press, New York
Barclay, Harold, (1990), People with Government; An Anthropology of Anarchy, Left Bank Books
