Nations, States, Rank, and Power
A nation refers to a group of people who lives together despite the hard times that may face them at any one time while a country refers to the geographical region. The state is defined as the political community that is under one government. Government is the governing body in a country or a state. A nation-state is a form of sovereign state whose leaders have the mandate of the people to govern.
A superpower refers to a country that has the ability to dominate other countries and therefore able to influence the decision making of such a country. Prior to the end of the cold war, the United States of America and the Soviet Union had been regarded as superpowers in the world. Superpowers are regarded as the shapers of world affairs because their actions have been known to affect a number of countries especially the developing countries. The middle power term is used to denote those countries that command some influence on other countries although they cannot be compared with the superpowers. These countries act as the bridge between the superpowers and the developing countries.
Some of the difficulties encountered in measuring the country’s power are lack of statistics because some countries do not release the actual figures used to measure power. Military capacity is an accurate indicator of influence because those countries that refuse to collaborate with the superpowers are bombed to force them collaborates. The components of soft power include values, culture, policies, as well as institutions.
In the USA and Western Europe, the famous type of economic system is capitalism. Capitalism is good because it aims at profit-making although it has been blamed for the big gap between the poor and the rich. In China and other Eastern European countries, the famous economic system is Socialism. Socialism has helped in taking care of those people in the society who are less privileged although it has been blamed for economic stagnation. GNP is a good measure to know whether a country is progressing. As a country moves forward economically, one of the areas affected is the environment. This is because many countries depend on minerals like oil, and gold hence as they mine them they contribute to environmental degradation.
Thinking about Government
Government is the governing body in a country or a state while politics refers to the actions that are closely related to the administration of a country. Accountability refers to the government being responsible for all its actions to the people. Constitutionalism is used to denote how the government adheres to the laws of the country. Popular sovereignty is used to show that the government of the day has the full support of its people since it is the people who elected it to office. Rule of law refers to states that all people are equal before the law.
In a democratic government, the people are allowed to air their opinion on how the country should be governed. In addition, they can critic the government’s action. In an authoritarian government, there is no democracy in it since the leaders are in most cases unelected and are unaccountable to their people. Totalitarian government tries to dominate all aspects of life on her people thus denying such people a chance to air their grievances. The Canadian government has allowed freedom of expression while China has not.
In a parliamentary system, there is no clear separation of power between the parliament and the executive. In Canada, the head of the government is drawn from parliament whereas in the US the president is not elected as a member of parliament but rather as president alone. In Canada, the head of the government just like the US can be removed from power if he or she is suspected of having committed certain things. In addition, the legislature keeps an eye on how the government spends its resources.
Executives
In many countries where the legislature is compromised by the executive, the executive will formulate policies and quickly passed by the parliament. However, in countries with a strong and accountable legislature, this may not be the case because some of the policies may be rejected or adopted. In Canada, the cabinet cannot pass resolutions alone without involving the legislative arm and therefore such constraints. The parliament by so doing asserts its authority as enshrined in the Canadian constitution.
Some of the executive functions include policy formulation. In both countries, the cabinet comes up with policy and has to be tabled before the House for deliberations. The cabinet acts as the advisor of the head of state in both countries. However, in the United States, some of the bills have to go through both houses to enhance accountability. Therefore the United States is more democratic and also its executive is equally more powerful than the Canadian one because the Executive members are vetted by the Senate.