Throughout history, political
commentators and theorists have speculated upon many often-contradictory
definitions of government politics. It is, amongst other things, a subjective
topic of conversation that brings out the best and worst in people when they
confer about the many different political ideologies that exist.
Defining Government Politics
It is challenging to offer a single definition of politics upon which everyone
can agree. The topic of politics means that a contextual framework reference is
needed to define and organise the subject into a form of subjective meaning
concerning how politics can be explained. To explore the broader definitions of
politics, we can split the definitions into four principal areas:
- Monarch: A monarchy is a government form
in which a person is defined as the monarch, or head of state, which may
or may not be in the form of a representation of being a symbolic or
constitutional head of state or a formal legitimate political authority
position with real, and actual power in the running of state
affairs. The monarch's role can vary from being restricted to a fully
autocratic or absolute position as head of state, involving judicial,
legislative, and executive domains. The monarch holds their position for
life or until their abdication, and succession is hereditary. However,
elective and self-proclaimed monarchies have been prevalent throughout
history.
- Democracy: a system of government where
people are elected by the electorate through the rule of the majority, so
that a government can be formed in which the vested power is supreme and
absolute. The electorate holds power by exercising its wishes by
collectively voting for people or groups of people, more formally known as
political parties, either directly or indirectly through a system of
representation, whichever best matches their view of how the country
should be run. Democracy has evolved from when communities made
decisions locally through popular assembly to the dominant form today,
where democracy is defined as representative, in which the electorate
votes for the type of government to govern on their behalf. This can be
through a parliamentary or presidential format in which majority rule is
applied. However, plurality, supermajority, constitution, or consensus
rule can be used in other cases.
- Totalitarian: is a government and a political
form that prohibits any form of opposition, outlaw's individual and group
opposition to the state, which can exercise a varying form of an extreme
and comprehensive form of authoritarianism, to an extremely high degree of
control and regulation over a country's population in both their public
and private life. In totalitarian states, a dictator often holds
total and supreme political power, in which tactics control
all-encompassing campaigns through state-controlled mass media broadcast
propaganda, to prevent the population's free and independent thinking and
ideology, and to stifle rebellious thoughts.
- Authoritarianism is a system of politics that
rejects democracy and free expression, which involves using centrally
controlled absolute power to preserve the political status quo. Authority
is less invested in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic
voting, with many typologies describing the variations of authoritarian
forms of government. Regimes may be either oligarchic or autocratic
and may be based upon the rule of the military or politics. Some
constitutions blur the meaning and boundaries between authoritarianism and
democracy, describing them as competitive authoritarian or hybrid
democracies.
What is important is that government
policies are characterised by the decisions and actions that governments enact
at various levels in diverse ways to achieve specific political goals and aims.
These political goals and aims or policies can affect many other aspects of
society, including the economy, demand and supply characteristics of trade in
terms of import and export, a country's balance of payments, businesses, and
the overall welfare of a country's population.
Government Fiscal Policies
Governments essentially formed through
totalitarian or authoritarian-based politics have goals and aims that can be,
although only sometimes, centred on the ruling elite's needs, aspirations, and
ideologies. Society's needs often take second place. They are governed so that
societal needs are replaced with a sense of total and absolute allegiance to
the ruling elite, often at the expense of the well-being of the population at
large.
Countries that a monarch rules may have
politics that are centred along a continuum of totalitarian or
authoritarianism-based politics at one end of the political spectrum, to a full
democracy at the other. During the latter half of the 20th century,
the world saw a polarisation of political systems between communism,
totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and democracy. In many cases, the
polarisation of political ideologies has led to wars, or at least a profound
sense of uneasiness, as evidenced by the European Cold War between the USSR and
Europe in the 1980s and 1990s.
The breakdown of the USSR increased the
democracy of the political landscape in some of the former states of the USSR,
with some states embracing political democracy in full. At the same time, some
accepted it in limited ways. Democracy allows people to choose the political
system within their country through voting and free speech, in which people are
free to express their thoughts and political ideologies to anyone who will
listen. The freedom of choice allows people to decide on the levels of public
services to be provided through the magnitude of taxation that they judge to be
fair, at least in a limited way.
As distinct from the government, the
micro definition of politics is that which concerns the state. The state forms
the government departments and quangos that provide and manage the country's
public services, enforce law and order, ensure national and international
security, and provide for the governance of the country's general
administration.
Evolving Political Ideology
Conversely, the government comprises
politicians who, temporarily, through being elected, run the state and
determine the public services that should be provided, the laws it must
enforce, the level of national and international security that must be executed
and all other purposes that the state must provide and administer. A more
expansive definition of politics concerning the state might include the
following:
- Activities that either involve or directly affect the
institutions of the state.
- Individuals and politicians who directly manage the
affairs of state.
- Those directly involved in the organisation of
governance.
- Locations in which these activities and people
operate.
A government's policies are used to
address the issues of social welfare, economic growth, national security, and
international relations. Government policies are principles, guidelines, and
rules that a government develops to achieve its goals or address specific
issues. The policies are created through a democratic elective process and are
enforced by government agencies, and can affect businesses in a way that can be
divided into two categories:
- Microeconomic policies that affect legislation, taxes,
and industrial regulatory processes.
- Macroeconomic policies that affect
the economy, business, and fiscal trading patterns.
Within the UK, HM Treasury manages
fiscal policy, the economy and finance to implement economic policies and
strategies that ensure sustainable economic growth through public spending,
financial services, and the business and personal tax regime, sporadically
using the delivery of infrastructure projects. A government's monetary and
commercial aims are usually centred around six vital objectives:
- Manage public finances efficiently and effectively.
- Stimulate and increase economic growth, both
nationally and internationally.
- Ensure a stable macroeconomic environment through the
growth of supply and demand.
- Achieve and support full employment.
- Ensure economic trade and price
stability.
- Increase and manage the balance of
payments.
The Need for Economic Growth
The foremost crucial goal is achieving
economic growth. Economic growth is measured by the annual change in the
percentage of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the increase or
decrease in the value of national output, considering national production and
labour efficiency. Sustainable economic growth is vital to ensuring a country's
economic performance. It contributes to increased economic trading activity and
a lower unemployment rate that can be utilised to raise tax revenues and boost
public spending on welfare and infrastructure projects to stimulate further
economic growth. Governments can stimulate additional economic growth through
demand and supply policies:
- The demand-side stimulus includes national and
international fiscal and taxation policies, such as increased public
spending promoted by reduced taxation and interest rates through prudent
monetary policies.
- Supply-side policies include interventionist
and non-interventionalist policies. Interventionalist policies confer more
control over fiscal and economic activities on the government. Examples
include increased funding for infrastructure, education, and training.
Non-interventionalist policies increase the importance of the market in
economic growth and include tax cuts, free-market agreements,
privatisation, and deregulation.
- Demand-side policies aim to increase aggregate demand
(national expenditure). In contrast, supply-side policies improve
aggregate supply (national output) and productivity.
The balance of payments of a country is
a record of its international trade through foreign currencies made by
organisations based in the country. Foreign trade is crucial to enable
countries to trade with each other, as it allows for the international trading
of currencies in exchange for imports and exports and has been a method by
which taxes have been raised through the imposition of trade tariffs to protect
internal industrial and economic markets from cheaper foreign products and
services.
The Need for International Trade
International trade has its peaks and
troughs, meaning that a country's balance of payments should balance out over
the long term but may become erratic in the short term. This implies that a
nation's balance of payments can be negative and in surplus when countries have
purchased more from abroad than they have exported, or vice versa.
A country needs adequate sources of
foreign currencies to allow international trade. Currency shortages will mean a
country may be forced to buy foreign currency in exchange markets or trade with
other countries while enduring an unfavourable currency exchange rate. The
primary concern for a government is to ensure that the exchange rate for its
currency is stable but trades at a level that allows imports to be balanced
with the cost of exports to stimulate international trade so that products and
services can be bought in locations where they can be supplied at least cost.
A country’s balance of payments is a
record of all imports and exports recorded in the currency in which they were
made over a predetermined period. A country records these transactions in three
ways through its:
- Current account records the import
and export value of goods and services.
- Capital account that records
international financial currency transfers.
- Financial account in which international investments,
bonds, stocks, and property transactions are documented.
The increase in global trade has, at times, increased macroeconomic liberalisation within many developing third-world nations to create a trading boom and bust economic cycle. This has led to many countries lifting restrictions to maximise the advantage of currency inflows due to exporting products and services through these financial account transactions. However, many economists believe that lifting trade restrictions will eventually lead to an economic crisis in emerging markets. This threat is currently envisaged within many Asian countries.
Many Asian countries have implemented restrictive macroeconomic trade policies,
with regulations preventing foreign ownership of Asian national financial and
non-financial assets and limiting international foreign currency transfer. With
the liberation of Asian capital and financial accounts, currency market trade
increased, allowing more sophisticated and transparent investors to boost
direct foreign investment within Asian markets. The investments and rise in
international trade increased Asia’s GDP through increased domestic production
and manufacturing volumes. They facilitated a reduced risk by allowing a
greater diversification of trading activities in a diverse international market.
Government Spending to Increase Economic
Recovery
The government’s policies on taxation
and spending can affect a country’s level of output and employment through the
distribution of economic consumer and business spending. The net effect of the
government's positive changes in taxation is typically seen as a stimulus to
society’s financial resources and spending. Governments will act to regulate
the overall aggregate economic demand within the economy through their taxation
policies to regulate the effects on household expenditure, national economic
trading levels, and exports to control inflation, which can either have a
positive or negative impact on the amount spent within the economy.
An often-interlinked goal of government is to increase employment rates to
supply more jobs and reduce unemployment. A reduction in output or an increase
in unemployment can create an unsustainable strain on a country’s economy by
lowering the living standards of unemployed people and limiting the general
wage increases of the employed, thereby decreasing spending in the economy.
A government fiscal policy designed to
increase the consumption of products and services is often formulated to
increase economic activity within the economy, principally when the
private-sector consumption, spending or investment in products and services is
reduced and insufficient to stimulate and sustainably increase economic growth
and employment. This is especially prevalent within an economy where the budget
is in deficit, and tax receipts are lower than predicted government
expenditure.
In this scenario, the government may be
forced into borrowing to fund the deficit between planned and forecasted
revenue and expenditure levels. Fiscal policy is drafted to eradicate the
short-term fluctuations in a country’s economic activity. The downside to using
fiscal policy to mitigate economic fluctuations is that fiscal drag can affect
the repercussions of events and take longer than expected to have the desired
effect on financial activities.
Government spending can be targeted at
reducing the inequality of geographical economic activity levels across the
different regions of a country, where the local environment is made up of
trading markets that work at various levels. "Levelling up” of the lack of
economic activity in some regions can be achieved by spending on capital
infrastructure projects or public services in areas where the more significant
impact of the inequality of opportunity has harmed the local economy, targeting
the areas with the highest poverty rates.
This type of government spending can be
directed at infrastructure projects to increase local employment rates,
stimulate spending in the region's economy, and supply a sustainable, more
prolonged impact on the regional economy's ability to improve a country’s
overall international competitiveness. However, improvements in specific
national infrastructure projects encourage negative travel and economic
activity externalities.
The investment in green technology
through the government’s funding of projects and technologies such as wind and
wave power, subsidising the design and use of electric vehicles, and supplying
vehicle charging infrastructure, as well as alternative heating technology for
business and domestic properties will promote the adoption of greener
technologies, leading to a less polluted environment.
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