The Joke

Government is the institution through which a society makes and enforces it public policies. The Government is made up of people who have authority over the people. Public policies are decisions that the government makes and decides to do. Public policies cover a wide range of things such as taxation, defense, education and health care just to name a few. The Government has the power and ability to carry out all of these public policies.

In the United States Government there are three branches of government which split the power equally. These branches of government are the Legislative Branch, Executive Branch, and the Judicial Branch. The Legislative branch has the power to form new laws. The Executive branch has control over if laws are destroyed or enforced. The Judicial power has the power to interpret laws, to decide on what they mean, and settle disputes that arise within the society. These branches of government were outlined in the country's constitution. A constitution is the body of fundamental laws setting out the principles, structures, and processes of a government.

There are many different kinds of Government, such as a Dictatorship and a Democracy. In a Dictatorship the government is ruled by either a small group of people or one individual. In a democracy the power rests in the people's hands. Unlike in a dictatorship the people have a right to vote. When people vote they are putting who they want to be in office.

What is a State? Well a State can be defined as a group of people, living in a defined area, has a local government, and has the power to make and enforce laws without the permission of someone with higher authority. Currently in the world there are over One Hundred Ninety states. States can sometimes greatly differ from each other in size, natural resources, and military power. However all states possess four characteristics, Population, territory, sovereignty, and government.

A state must have people in it for the state to be working, but the size of the population does not affect the existence of the state. For example, the world's smallest state is San Marino. It covers a little over 24 square miles with a population of 27,000 people. Then the United States is the world's third most populous state with 285 million people in it.

Each state in the world is sovereign. Sovereign means that the state has complete power within its borders and can decide on its own foreign and domestic policies. Like all other states in the world the United States can build their own economy and decide on foreign policies.

Over the centuries there have been four major theories on how states were formed. Those four theories are The Force theory, The Evolution theory, The Divine Right Theory, and The Social Contract theory. The Force theory claimed that one person or a small group of people claimed a piece of land and forced all people in it to be under their