Human beings are created with the natural ability to cooperate with each other. This cooperation happens either consciously or unconsciously and can be formal or informal. The ability of human beings to cooperate makes it possible for governments to interrelate with citizens. Without this cooperation, human societies would have been characterized by a state of anarchy, misrule, lack of order and the end result would be gross violation of the natural rights and liberties.
It is worth mentioning that human beings are entitled to have certain rights and privileges which are natural, should be enjoyed freely and should be protected from any form of violation. Therefore, everybody has the right to do what pleases him or her and also the right and responsibility to respect the others’ rights.
It could be mentioned that rights exist as shared norms and underscore the importance of treating all human beings with dignity, fairness and equality irrespective of their cultural backgrounds. These rights and entitlements are supported by moral reasoning and legal basis both at national and international levels. The first ideas about human rights emerged after the World War II when the universal declaration of human rights was adopted by the General Assembly in 1948 (Chandler, 2002).
Politics has been defined as the competition for resources. It also refers to ways in which national resources are distributed, i.e. who gets what, when and how. The resources include political power, financial and natural resources. In essence, politics is a way in which governments are formed and also a way in which leaders are nominated or elected to office.
According to Aristotle, man is both a social and political animal. This means that politics is a way of life and, thus, we as human beings cannot do without politics. All human societies have various forms of governments examples of which include monarchs, single party rule, multiparty rule, tyranny and dictatorships.
In general, the concept of politics implies cooperation between the rulers and the ruled, the government and the governed. The rulers are the leaders who are in charge of running the government. These leaders come to office in different ways depending on the type of government.
According to the social contract theory and as formulated by Rousseau, the relationship between governments and people is based on a social agreement in which people agree to surrender some of their rights in exchange of protection by their government (Rousseau, 2004).
The theory conceptualizes the relationship between a government and people as a symbiotic kind of relationship which is characterized by a give-and-take kind of exchange. As per this theory, the government has the responsibility of offering social, political, environmental and religious security to people. In return, people have the responsibility of obeying the laws, being loyal to the government and the country and facilitating the government with revenues in form of taxes.
National security entails the government’s mandate to protect its citizens from any threat to peace, either internal or external. So, any government is supposed to do whatever it deems necessary to protect its citizens from any threats. Civil liberties are entitlements of a country’s citizens.
They are rights and freedoms which citizens are provided with by constitutional documents. It must be stated that they include freedoms of speech, religion, movement, right to privacy, and right to own property among other rights and freedoms as may be provided in a constitution or in international treaty provisions. These two issues of national security and civil liberties have however been controversial in that the government is supposed to protect the citizens as well as respect their civil liberties (Robert, 2004).
With the advent of terrorism, and especially after September 11 terrorist attacks, the US government has faced the challenge of balancing the two issues of national security and civil liberties, with the question of how far the citizens may go in compromising some of their civil liberties in order to be protected by the government. On one side, the government is supposed to protect its citizens against terrorism, while on the other side, it is supposed to respect the liberties of the citizens.
When the citizens are left to exercise their liberties, in some cases they may abuse them by committing terrorist acts because when the government interferes with civil liberties of the citizens in an effort to protect them, it may end up violating some people’s rights. In this way the issue is controversial. However, the fact remains that civil liberties should be seen as the primary security which citizens should expect from the government (Robert, 2004).
The argument that citizens should compromise or sacrifice some of their civil liberties has got both positive and negative sides. The positive side is that the government is able to have the convenience of operating without any legal or technical challenges in protecting the citizens. It is able to do what it considers necessary to combat any terrorist acts or threats to peace.
For example, the former US president Georg W. Bush in 2001 signed the USA Patriotic Act into law (Michael, 2002). The Act required the American citizens to make some sacrifices regarding some of their civil liberties like the right to privacy in internet communications. This was done to help the FBI trace and identify any premeditated terrorist attacks and take the necessary measures, all in the name of protecting the citizens (Michael, 2002).
The negative side is that this encroachment of the government into people’s lives and freedoms is subject to abuse by the government. For instance, some Muslim citizens in America were subjected to unnecessary frisking, interrogation and screening by the government in its “war against terrorism” which amounted to racial discrimination. There was also the issue of the Guantanamo prison in which those suspected to be terrorists were locked up before trial.
The problem was that the American government had violated the rights of the suspects in that they were locked in the cells for a very long time without trial, which was against the bill of rights in the American constitution and the Geneva Convention talking on human rights. The interception of mails and emails by the FBI and the eavesdropping on people’s conversations, especially lawyers and their clients, were not only unethical but also amounted to violation of civil liberties (Robert, 2004).
According to John Locke, governments and people cooperate through taxation. For the government to get funds to run its affairs, it needs to tax people. This is considered as a legitimate means of attaining cooperation. The cost involved in taxation is the loss of ones’ resources through taxation. However, this cost is worth given that it leads to protection of the remaining resources after taxation.
One may consider a situation whereby people may decide not to pay taxes to their government. In turn, the government would not have resources to pay the security personnel. Consequently, anarchy would prevail and people would end up losing all their resources and to some extend their lives due to insecurity. Taxation is therefore not only a justifiable means of cooperation between citizens and the government but is also inevitable for any government to be stable.
As mentioned earlier, various countries have different forms of governments. Among all the government types, democracy is best suited for cooperation between people and governments. This is caused by the fact that in a democracy people elect their best choices of leaders to represent them in the government, which comprises three major arms namely the legislature, the judiciary and the executive branch.
The legislative arm of government is responsible for making laws to govern the country and people. Since the legislators are chosen by people through a popular vote, then the laws which they make are deemed to be made by the entire population and in this way, people are presumed to be governing themselves.
The judicial arm of government is responsible for interpreting the laws and settling any disputes in the conflict of the laws. It is also responsible for the prosecution of those who violate the law. With democracy, the rights of individuals are protected. Democracy is not only suited for the protection of individual rights and freedoms but also for the protection of the general rights of the entire population within a country.
References
Chandler, David. (ed.). 2002. Rethinking Human Rights: Critical Approaches to International Politics. Palgrave: Macmillan.
Michael, McCarthy. 2002. Recent Developments: USA Patriotic Act. Web.
Robert, Davis. 2004. Striking the Balance: National Security vs. Civil Liberties. Web.
Rousseau, Jean. J. 2004. The Social Contract or Principles of Political Right. McKeesport, PA: Kessinger Publishing.