Human beings are always concerned with the problems that affect the quality of life, forcing them to come together with the aim of establishing the best ways of ending uncertainties. In other words, they tend to form strong relationships to realize collective goals, especially security. As Frideres (2011) notes, human beings form special rules that are applied universally, set up institutions and guide behaviour, and champion for the adoption of particular traditions to help in the process of decision-making. Human societies are made up of several categories of people, each with interests, desires, expectations, and wishes, which impedes decision-making process in many ways. As people come together to form strong institutions and rules that help them in fulfilment of individual goals, variations are encountered regarding the best system of administration. The rich will want a system that favours production and free movement of goods whereby private property is protected while the poor tend to suggest a production model that allows each person to access social goods irrespective of the class.
A society that intends to achieve developmental goals has to form self-government to oversee the affairs of each person. In Canadian society, the First Nation has never enjoyed its rights and privileges because of insufficient civilization and constant competition from foreigners. Based on this, it has to establish self-government that will play the role of empowering the citizens to catch up with the rest of the world. Self-governance is important because it gives citizens some powers to control the activities that go on in society. The features of a good government include authority, direction, fairness, performance, and responsibility. In the traditional governance systems, leaders were mainly obtained from special families and clans because power was inherited, but the case is different under self-government because people are allowed to compete for political positions. Elections are held periodically and whoever wins is allowed to form a government with various ministries to assist in service delivery. However, powerful administrative units are established by merging traditional and modern power techniques.
In Canada, the indigenous communities, popularly referred to as Aboriginals, are unwilling to adopt the modern systems of administration preferring the older systems that give the community over an individual. Even though these systems are known to work well in imparting moral principles and communal rules to the younger generation, they do not have the capacity to spur economic, social, and political development. These communities have never wanted to live with foreigners because they view them as a direct threat to their survival, especially in the labour market and in the financial market. The federal government has been under pressure from these communities to safeguard them from the competition, something that goes against the tenets of self-government that support the western principles. While the government has to protect the individual from unlawful activities, it should not disadvantage the other person meaning opportunities must be provided equality without favouritism and consideration of race. The First Nation has to be encouraged to adopt modern governmental principles because this will serve as an economic stimulant in the various regions they occur. The idea of inhering power has to be stopped in favour of the modern systems that value democracy, where the winner takes it all whereas the minorities should have a say. The views of the citizens should be represented in government through democratically elected officials.
Reference
Frideres, J. S. (2011). First Nations in the twenty-first century. Don Mills: OUP Canada.