美国政治理论随笔

当我们进入21世纪后，很多传统的检查政府及其作用的方式似乎已经过时。对于许多20世纪的社会和政治思想是以“国家”概念为主。而在美国的政治理论在50，60年代是政府和权力的想法更加“多元化”，70年代和80年代，专家都赞成通过了一项“国家为中心”的理念。

当代国家不可避免地就集中制，组织，规范和管理进行了检查。社会和政治理论家对国家的作用不断扩大，，并批判政治多元化的理念，因为他们似乎忽略了国家的结构作用。总之，他们希望把国家尽早带入现代社会（霍洛维茨，1997年）。

在过去的十年里，许多社会学家和政治学家都在相反的方向进行强烈的主张。他们都试图找到分析和研究政府权力的方法，这不会立即构成政府的霸权主义方面的作用，这条现代系统的规则依赖于一套政府与非政府机构之间复杂的关系。

As we enter the 21st century, many of the traditional ways of examine government and its role seems obsolescent. For much of the 20th century the social and political thought was dominated by concept of 'the state'. While political theory in the United States up through the 50s and 60s was more 'pluralist' in its idea of government and power and by the 70s and 80s, analysts were in favor of the adoption of a 'state-centered' approach. 

The contemporary state was examined in terms of a seemingly ineluctable inclination to concentrate, organize, regulate and administer. Social and political theorist concentration was on the expanding role of the state and criticized the ongoing idea of political pluralism because they seemed to overlook the structuring role of the state. In brief, they wanted to 'bring the state back in' to the study of modern society (Horowitz, 1997).

Over the last ten years, many sociologists and political scientists have argued equally strongly in the opposite direction. They have attempted to find ways of analyzing and investigating government and power which are not immediately structured in terms of the hegemonic role of the government, which comprehends that modern systems of rule depend upon a complex set of relations between government and non-government authorities, upon infrastructural control, upon group of power, upon the actions of authorities who do not form part of the official or unofficial state apparatus (Zeckhauser & Leebaert, 1988). One sign of this progress has been the emergence of 'governance' as a new topic of social and political analysis. At its most common, the term 'governance' is used as a type of catch-all to refer to any policy, tactic, process, practice or program for calculating, regulating, determining, mastering or implementing authority over others in a country, organization or locality.

The central debates on government and its role today are particularly concerned with its practical and social roles, its contribution in the economy, and its redistributive function.

This article describes and assesses the role of the government and its practical, ethical and social obligations and concludes with an overview of emerging problems.

Governance and the Purpose of the government
Throughout the world the fascination with governance and government continues to grow and so does the discussions about further explanation of the theory of local, state and even global governance. Governance guides and pays attention to the troubles, resources, actions, etiquette, techniques and substance by which actors place themselves under the rule, guidance, influence and mastery of others, or request to place other actors, groups, individuals or events under their own power. Used in this way, governance appears to be a handy and compendious way of pointing to a number of vital questions for research (Saldomando, 2002). Governance can be good or bad. It is considered good when political policies and plans seek to reduce the role of the state, when it promotes non-state system of regulation, decreases the size of the political apparatus and administration, presents fresh public management, and transforms the role of politics in the management of social and monetary affairs. It short it means less government, politicians implementing power by steering more willingly than delivering services (Agere, 2000).

As far as the role and purpose of the government is concerned it is mention in the constitution that the government has to establish justice, insure domestic harmony, provide for the common defense, support the general wellbeing, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. In brief, the government has to ascertain the rules of the game, for instance, by making chosen contracts enforceable. And on top of that it has to step in when markets crash (Tulchin & Brown, 2002). Such condition includes the management of ex�ternalities, such as pollution, and the provision of community goods- national de�fense being the typical example. Government may also cooperate when the operation of markets is impeded or in a case of market concentra�tion, which may be tackled through antitrust policy or price regulation.

Practical Obligations
The strict sense of obligation means what we ought to do according to a set of rules which are believed to apply to us irrespective of any consensus or agreement we may have made. From a practical stand point, the government�s obligation to its citizens is to derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. The government's job is to protect and give its people rights. The practical responsibility of the government is not to solve everyone's problems but it should give everyone the opportunity to pursue happiness. It is their duty to ensure everyone with life protection, freedom to live how they please, and giving them equal opportunities to start a business, getting married, etc (Klosko, 2008).

The practical obligation of the government is to do what it says it will do. In order to do this, the government must first protect people. To achieve this, government has created laws that every citizen equally must abide by. There are punishments for those who do not follow these rules. If the law and order situation is fragile there will be no stability and any citizen can impose his or her will on other citizens. So in is essential that citizen understand and abide by them. Secondly, the government is required to provide everybody with freedom. We have courts where everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Finally, the government is obliged to equally provide everyone with the pursuit of happiness. Though, with everyone having a diverse view of what happiness is, it is difficult to identify (Zeckhauser & Leebaert, 1988). In my opinion, the obligation is for the government not to stop people from following their faith, ancestors, and dreams, or to preclude them from reaching success. Certainly, citizens must still stand within the other laws that have been formed to defend others' pursuit of happiness, as well.

In short, governments practical obligations is not to fulfill our desires, is not to get everybody into their dream college. It is not their duty to make a single economic class of people by charging lofty taxes on the wealthy, and giving out the aid to the poor. Its obligation is just to protect its people, to ensure liberty for all, and to give everybody the right to follow their faith and dreams without opposition from the government.

Ethical Obligations
Ethical obligation may seem to be ideal idea to many citizens, but it is not fantasy. There is a clear agreement that the ethical role of governance is crucial aspect in the general growth of a country, ethics enables a country to perform effectively in highly complex and economical world, which is described by globalization and liberalization (Agere, 2000).

To execute ethical obligations they are three basic approaches that are pursued. The first focus is on ending corruption by utilizing several strategies such as supporting civilian access and transparency in governance. Secondly, stress on public integrity, highlight practical teaching, education, and citizen activism. Thirdly, the government needs to build an ethical infrastructure of a country, in particular a nation's laws and institutions of governance.

Corruption and unethical behavior prohibit any government from proficiently and efficiently serve the needs of its people. As well, corruption weakens admiration for the rule of law and for the democratic process that is the very nucleus of our system of government. Combating corruption has also set up influential advocates in a rising number of global, nonprofit groups such as Transparency International (TI), the Ethics Resource Center.

As far as integrity is concerned organization like Global Integrity which is a nonprofit international organization create in 2006 generates, synthesizes, and publicize reliable, comprehensive and well-timed information on governance and corruption trends around the world (Saldomando, 2002).

Building the ethics infrastructure of a country is the third approach to strengthening ethical governance. This approach is helped by the work of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). With 30 member countries and a history dating back to the 60s, has long been at the head of promoting ethical duties of government.


Social obligations
Social obligations of the government appears to be besieged with the challenges of building reliable democratic state size in the time of public sector reforms, based on a opposition and corporate administration, citizen disconnection, the 'retreat from the state' and a dependence on community based answers. The government should take interest in community building and different strategies and center primarily on spatial plan and civilian engagement plans, that intend to work with and beyond existing government, experts and community functions to deliver improved social outcomes (Zeckhauser & Leebaert, 1988).

A balance between the different organization of the state and the civil society is of crucial importance. Social scientist has argued that a prosperous civil society in the framework of ineffectual state political institutions can weaken political stability and democracy. They have also argued that an dynamic state as the 'collective tool' of the people has social obligation to work with and through society groups and other forms of civil society to handle the social effects of externalities such as globalization.

It�s also a social obligation of the governments to fulfill human rights. What this indicates is that the government must make the setting that permits all people to exercise their human rights. Such as, everyone has the right to get healthcare. In spite of that, countless people in this country cannot afford for health insurance and are not eligible for Medicaid. Almost forty million people are in this state. The government is obligated to generate circumstances that make private insurance inexpensive, or present a substitute like a reasonable public insurance scheme that promises universal quality care. These are some of the social obligations of the government (Tulchin & Brown, 2002).

To improve its social obligations the government should not purely be dependent on diverse networks, but must also build a sustainable institutional framework containing a blend of policy, dialogue, cooperation and arbitration based structures that can confer the difficulty of social and economic life Addressing network form and institutional design are elementary to the progress of democratic and successful social governance systems (Agere, 2000).

Conclusion  结论

The issue of how to insure good governance is fundamental for all human civilizations. Good governance must make certain human collaboration, which is essential for the positive development and stability of human civilization. Government is discussed above is the official organization that is authorized and has the political authority to control the relationships between members of the community and the society and those beyond its borders (Zeckhauser & Leebaert, 1988). The espousal of good governance as discussed above involves a lot more than intensifying the capability of the state to govern. The future task is to find a balance between the compensation of globalization on the one hand and providing a secure and enduring social and economic environment on the other hand. We are living in a global village that unfortunately symbolizes two worlds-the rich and the poor-where financial stagnation has disturbed some hundred countries and has seen a decline in the incomes of one billion people over the past 10 years (Saldomando, 2002).


The time is now to study the role of government and thus help them in providing an enabling atmosphere with sound financial, political and social policies, and the legal outline that promotes investment and the creation of wealth from which individuals can obtain benefits. In short, the time is now for more professional and efficient governments (Tulchin & Brown, 2002).