Government vs Governance

Government and governance are two very similar words. People often get confused about the

differences between “governance” and “government.” Here we are going to discuss the

differences between these two related words.

Government

Government is a group of people who rule or run the administration of a country. In other words,

it may be said that a government is the body of representatives that governs and controls the state

at a given time. Government is the medium through which the power of the state is employed.

Government may be of different types. It may be a democracy or autocracy, but most of the

modern governments are democratic. Here we are taking into consideration the democratic ones

in relation with the government.

A democratic government may be defined as that which has the public mandate to run the affairs

of the country with a well-defined term after which in the successive term the same people may

be elected again. The government may be labeled as good or bad according to their ways of

working for the good of the people. If a government provides capable governance, then it has a

chance of coming back into power again.

Governance

Governance is the act of governing or ruling. It is the set of rules and laws framed by the

government that are to be implemented through the representatives of the state. Simply put,

governance is what governments do.

Governance is a concept that can be followed in an organization of any size, be it a single cell or

an organism or all of humanity. Governance may function variously for profit or non-profit, for

people, or itself. The main purpose of governance is to assure good results following a set pattern

of rules.

Governance may be of various types:

Global Governance

Corporate Governance

Project

Information Technology

Participatory

Non-Profit and a few others

The difference between “government” and “governance” may be clarified using an example of a

business which is run by a group of people. The rules and regulations which they follow in order

to run the business successfully are called the management. This involves the experience and

the knowledge of the owners working together with the employees to meet the set target. On a

similar pattern, the government is a body of elected representatives which is headed by a single

person. This body makes use of established rules and a principle to efficiently run the affairs of

the country in favor of the people of the nation is called governance.

Summary:

1.Governance is what a government does.

2.Governance is the physical exercise of the polity while the government is the body through

which this is done.

government vs governanceGovernment and governance are two words that sound similar but are different  in meaning. Difference between government and governance is confusing for many people, and this article intends to clarify the meaning and definition of the two words so as to leave no scope for

confusion. An analogy can be drawn between officer and official and also bureaucrat and bureaucracy if we wish to understand difference between government and governance.

GovernmentThis is a body that comprises a person or a group of persons who run the administration of a country. This is a means in which power is exercised. There are various forms of governments such as democracy or autocracy but this article will remain confined to the general term government which is commonly used in social sciences. In normal circumstances, a state is run by a government that has a mandate from the people to run the affairs of the country and also a term that may be of 4-6 years to serve the state. Thus there is a succession of governments in any country or the same government may be elected again for a successive term if people feel that it has done its job of running the country in a fair and close to ideal manner.

GovernanceThe word governance refers to the activities of a government. In layman’s terms, it is the rules and laws made by the government that are sought to be implemented through a chosen bureaucracy which is referred to as governance. The process of governing people or a state is called governance.Difference between government and governanceTo understand the differences between government and governance, one can take the example of a business which is handled by a person or group of persons (called partners or owners). The way they run the business with the help of employees applying their knowledge and experience is called management. In a similar manner, government is the elected body of representatives headed by a person. This body has the mandate to rule or govern people. And the manner in which they use the established system and principles to run the affairs of the country is called governance.Governance can be good or bad depending upon the perception of the people and they may accordingly choose to retain or vote a particular government out of power.In nutshell, governance is what a government does. It is the exercise of powers that are bestowed upon the government according to set rules and regulations using a system of bureaucracy that defines governance. Government is merely an instrument for the purpose of governance.

Of all tasks of government the most basic is to protect its citizens against violence.    Dulles, John Foster

The tasks of the three branches of government are as follows:The executive is responsible for running the government, The Legislative is made up of two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate, which

are responsible for making laws. The Judicial branch, headed by the Supreme Court, is responsible for making sure all laws are constitutional and making sure they are obeyed.

Functions of Government

Maintenance of Authority. One of the principal functions of government is to remain in power.

Governments do not relinquish their authority unless compelled to do so. Many of the actions of

politicians and civil servants can be explained by the need to maintain and enhance their power.

Every government strives to increase its legitimacy in the eyes of the people. It may identify

itself with ancient traditions, with hope for the future, or with fear of a common enemy. Some

governments employ repression, never relaxing their vigils against real or imagined opponents.

Even democracies, when threatened, are likely to engage in a search for subversives and

"enemies of the people."

When a regime draws its main support from a privileged class or group that decreases in

numbers and strength, when a government becomes ineffective in handling domestic affairs or

countering external threats, or when a society's consensus on the principles and goals of

government evaporates, a government tends to lose authority. The French monarchy in the 18th

century and the Russian monarchy in the 20th century were based on aristocracies that had lost

much of their legitimacy in the eyes of the people. Eventually these regimes were unable to

enforce their laws, and revolutions swept them from power.

Governments tend, therefore, to foster widespread ideological commitment to the nation through

patriotic ceremonies, propaganda, and civic education; they employ armed forces and

intelligence-gathering organizations for national defense; they maintain police and prison

systems to ensure domestic order; and they undertake the administration of supervisory and

regulatory functions to carry out national goals by establishing various bureaucracies to handle

each complex function.

Administration. All governments recognize the principle that the public must be protected and

served. The citizen, in effect, surrenders a degree of individual sovereignty to the government in

return for protection of life and property and the delivery of essential services. Governments

supervise the resolution of conflicting interests, the workings of the political process, the

enforcement of laws and rights, and the monitoring of national income and international trade;

they regulate economic and social relationships among individuals and private organizations; and

they carry out enterprises such as production of military goods, provision of postal services, and

ownership of power utilities and public works. Among the most basic services provided by

government are the printing and coining of money, the provision of roads, sewers, water,

education, and social and welfare services.

With the growth of the welfare state, governments began to provide services such as social

security and health insurance. But the scope of government regulation is now much broader. In

the United States the government sets minimum wages, limits the rates charged by public

utilities, buys farm commodities to keep prices up, forbids the sale of harmful foods and drugs,

sets standards for gasoline consumption by automobiles, requires manufacturers to install

antipollution devices, and monitors the safety of factories. Federal, state, and local governments

in the United States also engage directly in economic activity. They impose taxes, produce and

consume goods, sell electric power, lend money to farmers, and insure bank deposits.

In other countries governments intrude even further into the workings of the economy. In

Western Europe governments own and operate telephone, radio, and television services,

railroads, coal mines, and aircraft companies. In some countries, such as Sweden and Great

Britain, the entire health system is also run by the state. In countries with Communist

governments, such as the former USSR , North Korea, China, and Cuba, the state has attempted

to control the entire economic life of the nation. All economic planning is centralized in the

government and its bureaucracies. When the system fails to produce the goods and services

expected by the people, the government is forced to increase the level of repression of its citizens

in order to remain in power.

Title:       The StateBook:        The Functions Of GovernmentAuthor:      Wilson, Woodrow The Functions Of Government        1473. What are the Functions of Government? - The question has its owndifficulties and complexities: it cannot be answered out of hand and by thelist, as the physiologist might answer the question, What are the functions ofthe heart?  In its nature government is one, but in its life it is many: thereare governments and governments.  When asked, therefore, What are the

functions of government?  we must ask in return, Of what government? Differentstates have different conceptions of their duty, and so undertake differentthings.  They have had their own peculiar origins, their own characteristichistories; circumstance has moulded them; necessity, interest, or caprice hasvariously guided them.  Some have lingered near those primitive institutionswhich all once knew and upheld together; others have quite forgotten that manever had a political childhood and are now old in complex practices ofnational self-government.      1474. The Nature of the Question. - It is important to notice at theoutset that this is in one aspect obviously a simple question of fact; and yetthere is another phase of it, in which it becomes as evidently a question ofopinion.  The distinction is important because over and over again thequestion of fact has been confounded with that very widely different question,What ought the functions of government to be?  The two questions should bekept entirely separate in treatment.  Under no circumstances may weinstructively or safely begin with the question of opinion: the answer to thequestion of fact is the indispensable foundation of all sound reasoningconcerning government, which is at all points based upon experience ratherthan upon theory.  The facts of government mirror the principles of governmentin operation.  What government does must arise from what government is: andwhat government is must determine what government ought to do.      1475. Classification. - It will contribute to clearness of thought toobserve the functions of government in two groups, I.  The ConstituentFunctions, II.  The Ministrant.  Under the Constituent I would place thatusual category of governmental function, the protection of life, liberty, andproperty, together with all other functions that are necessary to the civicorganization of society, - functions which are not optional with governments,even in the eyes of strictest laissez faire, - which are indeed the very bondsof society.  Under the Ministrant I would range those other functions (such aseducation, posts and telegraphs, and the care, say, of forests) which areundertaken, not by way of governing, but by way of advancing the generalinterests of society, - functions which are optional, being necessary onlyaccording to standards of convenience or expediency, and not according tostandards of existence; functions which assist without constituting socialorganization.      1476. Of course this classification is based primarily upon objective andpractical distinctions and cannot claim philosophic completeness. There may beroom for question, too, as to whether some of the functions which I class asMinistrant might not quite as properly have been considered Constituent; but Imust here simply act upon my own conclusions without rearguing them,acknowledging by the way that the line of demarcation is not always perfectlyclear. 

     1477. "The admitted functions of government," said Mr. Mill, "embrace amuch wider field than can easily be included within the ring-fence of anyrestrictive definition, and it is hardly possible to find any ground ofjustification common to them all, except the comprehensive one of generalexpediency."      1478. I. The Constituent Functions:      (1) The keeping of order and providing for the protection of persons andproperty from violence and robbery.      (2) The fixing of the legal relations between man and wife and betweenparents and children.      (3) The regulation of the holding, transmission, and interchange ofproperty, and the determination of its liabilities for debt or for crime.      (4) The determination of contract rights between individuals.      (5) The definition and punishment of crime.      (6) The administration of justice in civil causes.      (7) The determination of the political duties, privileges, and relationsof citizens.      (8) Dealings of the state with foreign powers: the preservation of thestate from external danger or encroachment and the advancement of itsinternational interests.      These will all be recognized as functions which are obnoxious not even tothe principles of Mr. Spencer, ^1 and which persist under every form ofgovernment. [Footnote 1: As set forth in his pamphlet, Man versus the State.]      1479. II. The Ministrant Functions. - It is hardly possible to give acomplete list of those functions which I have called Ministrant, so variousare they under different systems of government.  The following partial listwill suffice, however, for the purpose of the present discussion:      (1) The regulation of trade and industry.  Under this head I wouldinclude the coinage of money and the establishment of standard weights andmeasures, laws against forestalling and engrossing, the licensing of trades,etc., as well as the great matters of tariffs, navigation laws, and the like. 

     (2) The regulation of labor.      (3) The maintenance of thoroughfares, - including state management ofrailways and that great group of undertakings which we embrace within thecomprehensive term 'Internal Improvements.'      (4) The maintenance of postal and telegraph systems, which is verysimilar in principle to (3).      (5) The manufacture and distribution of gas, the maintenance of water-works, etc.      (6) Sanitation, including the regulation of trades for sanitary purposes.      (7) Education.      (8) Care of the poor and incapable.      (9) Care and cultivation of forests and like matters, such as thestocking of rivers with fish.      (10) Sumptuary laws, such as 'prohibition' laws, for example.      1480. These are all functions which, in one shape or another, allgovernments alike have undertaken.  Changed conceptions of the nature and dutyof the state have arisen, issuing from changed historical conditions, deeplyaltered historical circumstances; and part of the change which has thusaffected the idea of the state has been a change in the method and extent ofthe exercise of governmental functions; but changed conceptions have left thefunctions of government in kind the same.  Diversities of conception are verymuch more marked than diversities of practice.      1481. The following may be mentioned among ministrant functions notincluded under any of the foregoing heads, and yet undertaken by more than onemodern government: the maintenance of savings-banks, especially for small sums(e.g., the English postal savings-bank), the issuance of loans to farmers, andthe maintenance of agricultural institutes (as in France), and theestablishment of insurance for workingmen (as in Germany).      1482. History of Governmental Function: Province of the Ancient State. -Notable contrasts both of theory and of practice separate governments of theancient omnipotent type from governments of the modern constitutional type.The ancient State, standing very near, as it did, in its thought, to thattime, still more remote, when the State was the Kin, knew nothing ofindividual rights as contrasted with the rights of the state.  "The nations ofItaly," says Mommsen, "did not merge into that of Rome more completely than

the single Roman burgess merged in the Roman community." And Greece was not awhit behind Rome in the absoluteness with which she held the subordination ofthe individual to the state.      1483. This thought is strikingly visible in the writings of Plato andAristotle, not only in what they say, but also, and even more, in what they donot say.  The ideal Republic of which Plato dreams is to prescribe the wholelife of its citizens; but there is no suggestion that it is to be set up undercover of any new conception as to what the state may legitimately do, - it isonly to make novel experiments in legislation under the old conception.  AndAristotle's objection to the utopian projects of his master is not that theywould be socialistic (as we should say), but merely that they would be unwise.He does not fear that in such a republic the public power would prove to have been exalted too high; but, speaking to the policy of the thing, he foreseesthat the citizens would be poor and unhappy.  The state may do what it will,but let it be wise in what it does.  There is no one among the Greeks to denythat it is the duty of the state to make its citizens happy and prosperous;nay, to legislate them happy, if legislation may create fair skies and a kindfortune; the only serious quarrel concerns the question, What laws are to betried to this end?      1484. Roman Conception of Private Rights. - Roman principles, thoughequally extreme, were in some respects differently cast.  That superiorcapacity for the development of law, which made the Romans singular among thenations of antiquity, showed itself in respect of the functions of governmentin a more distinct division between public and private rights than obtained inthe polity of the Greek cities.  An examination of the conception of the stateheld in Rome reveals the singular framework of her society.  The Roman familydid not suffer that complete absorption into the City which so early overtookthe Greek family.  Private rights were not individual rights, but familyrights: and family rights did not so much curtail as supplement the powers ofthe community.  The family was an indestructible organ of the state.  Thefather of a family, or the head of a gens, was in a sense a member of theofficial hierarchy of the City, - as the king, or his counterpart the consul,was a greater father.  There was no distinction of principle between the powerof king or consul and the power of a father; it was a mere difference ofsphere, a division of functions.      1485. A son was, for instance, in some things exempt from the authorityof the City only because he was in those things still subject, because hisfather still lived, to the dominion of that original state, the family.  Therewas not in Rome that separation of the son from the family at majority whichcharacterizes the Greek polity, as it now characterizes our own.  The fathercontinued to be a ruler, an hereditary state officer, within the originalsphere of the family life, the large sphere of individual privilege and

property.      1486. This essential unity of state and family furnishes us with thetheoretic measure of state functions in Rome.  The Roman burgess wassubordinated, not to the public authority exactly, but rather to the publicorder, to the conservative integrity of the community.  He was subject to alaw which embodied the steady, unbroken habit of the State-family.  He was notdominated, but merged.      1487. Powers of the Roman Senate. - The range of state power in ancienttimes, as a range broken only by limits of habit and convenience, is wellillustrated in the elastic functions of the Roman Senate during the period ofthe Republic.  With an unbroken life which kept it conscious of everytradition and familiar with every precedent; with established standards oftested experience and cautious expediency, it was able to direct the movementsof the compact society at whose summit it sat, as the brain and consciousnessdirect the movements of the human body; and it is evident from the freedom ofits discussions and the frequency of its action upon interests of every kind,whether of public or of private import, that the Roman state, as typified inits Senate, was in its several branches of family, tribe, and City, a singleundivided whole, and that its prerogatives were limited by nothing savereligious observance and fixed habit.  Of that individual liberty which wecherish it knew nothing. (Compare secs. 173, 174.)      1488. Government the Embodiment of Society. - As little was there inGreek politics any seed of the thought which would limit the sphere ofgovernmental action by principles of inalienable individual rights.  Both inGreek and in Roman conception government was as old as society, - was indeednothing less than the express image and embodiment of society.  In governmentsociety lived and moved and had its being.  Society and government were one,in some such sense as the spirit and body of man are one: it was throughgovernment, as through mouth and eyes and limbs, that society realized andgave effect to its life.  Society's prejudices, habits, superstitions, didindeed command the actions of government; but only because society andgovernment were one and the same, not because they were distinct and the onesubordinate to the other.  In plain terms, the functions of government had nolimits of principle, but only certain limits of wont and convenience, and theobject of administration was nothing less than to help society on to all itsends: to speed and facilitate all social undertakings.  So far as fullcitizens of the state were concerned, Greek and Roman alike was what we shouldcall a socialist; though he was too much in the world of affairs and had tookeen an appreciation of experience, too keen a sense of the sane and possible,to attempt the Utopias of which the modern socialist dreams, and with whichthe ancient citizen's own writers sometimes amused him.  He bounded hispolitics by common sense, and so dispensed with 'the rights of man.' 

     1489. Feudalism: Functions of Government Functions of Proprietorship. -Individual rights, after having been first heralded in the religious world bythe great voice of Christianity, broke into the ancient political world in theperson of the Teuton.  But the new politics which the invader brought with himwas not destined to establish at once democratic equality: that was a workreserved for the transformations of the modern world.  During the Middle Ages,government, as we conceive it, may be said to have suffered eclipse.  In theFeudal System the constituent elements of government fell away from eachother.  Society was drawn back to something like its original family groups.Conceptions of government narrowed themselves to small territorialconnections.  Men became sovereigns in their own right by virtue of owningland in their own right. There was no longer any conception of nations orsocieties as wholes. Union there was none, but only interdependence.Allegiance bowed, not to law or to fatherhood, but to ownership.  Thefunctions of government under such a system were simply the functions ofproprietorship, of command and obedience: "I say unto one, Go, and he goeth;and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doethit." The public function of the baron was to keep peace among his liegemen, tosee that their properties were enjoyed according to the custom of the manor(if the manor had been suffered to acquire custom on any point), and to exactfines of them for all privileges, whether of marrying, of coming of age, or of making a will.  The baronial conscience, bred in cruel, hardening times, wasthe only standard of justice; the baronial power the only conclusive test ofprerogative.      1490. This was between baron and vassal.  Between baron and baron theonly bond was a nominal common allegiance to a distant king, who was himselfonly a greater baron.  For the rest there was no government, but onlydiplomacy and warfare.  Government lived where it could and as it could, andwas for the most part divided out piecemeal to a thousand petty holders.Armed feuds were the usual processes of justice.      1491. The Feudal Monarchy. - The monarchy which grew out of the ruins ofthis disintegrate system concentrated authority without much changing itscharacter.  The old idea, born of family origins, that government was but theactive authority of society, the magistrate but society's organ, bound bysociety's immemorial laws, had passed utterly away, and government had becomethe personal possession of one man.  The ruler did not any longer belong tothe state; the state belonged to him: he was himself the state, as the richman may be said to be his possessions.  The Greek or Roman official waswielded by the community.  Not so the king who had swept together into his ownlap the powers once broadcast in the feudal system: he wielded the community.Government breathed with his breath, and it was its function to serve him.The state had become, by the processes of the feudal development, his privateestate.

      1492. Modern De-socialization of the State. - The reaction from suchconceptions, slow and for the most part orderly in England, sudden andviolent, because long forcibly delayed, on the Continent, was natural, andindeed inevitable.  When it came it was radical; but it did not swing thepolitical world back to its old-time ideas; it turned it aside rather to new.The ancient man had had no thought but to live loyally the life of society;but it became the object of the revolutionist and the democrat of the neworder of things to live his own life.  The antique citizen's virtues were notindividual in their point of view, but social; whereas our virtues are almostentirely individual in their motive, social only in some of their results.      1493. In brief, the modern State has been largely de-socialized.  Themodern idea is this: the state no longer absorbs the individual; it onlyserves him.  The state, as it appears in its organ, the government, is therepresentative of the individual, and not his representative even exceptwithin the definite commission of constitutions; while for the rest each manmakes his own social relations.  'The individual for the State' has beenreversed and made to read, 'The State for the individual.'      1494. More Changes of Conception than of Practice. - Such are thedivergencies of conception separating modern from ancient politics,divergencies at once deep and far-reaching.  How far have such changes ofthought been accompanied by changes of function?  By no means so far as mightbe expected.  Apparently the new ideas which have been given prevalence inpolitics from time to time have not been able to translate themselves intoaltered functions, but only into somewhat curtailed functions, breeding rathera difference of degree than a difference of kind.  Even under the most liberalof our modern constitutions we still meet government in almost every field ofsocial endeavor.  Our modern life is so infinitely wide and complex, it istrue, that we may go great distances in any field of enterprise withoutreceiving either direct aid or direct check from government; but that is onlybecause every field of enterprise is vastly big nowadays, not becausegovernment is not somewhere in it: and we know that the tendency is forgovernments to make themselves everywhere more and more conspicuously present.We are conscious that we are by no means in the same case with the Greek orRoman: the state is ours, not we the state's.  But we know at the same timethat the tasks of the state have not been much diminished.  Perhaps we may saythat the matter stands thus: what is changed is not the activities ofgovernment but only the morals, the conscience of government.  Government maystill be doing substantially the same things as of old; but an alteredconception of its responsibility deeply modifies the way in which it doesthem.  Social convenience and advancement are still its ultimate standard ofconduct, just as if it were still itself the omnipotent impersonation ofsociety, the master of the individual; but it has adopted new ideas as to whatconstitutes social convenience and advancement.  Its aim is to aid the

individual to the fullest and best possible realization of his individuality,instead of merely to the full realization of his sociality. Its plan is tocreate the best and fairest opportunities for the individual; and it hasdiscovered that the way to do this is by no means itself to undertake theadministration of the individual by old-time futile methods of guardianship.      1495. Functions of Government much the Same now as always. - This isindeed a great and profound change; but it is none the less important toemphasize the fact that the functions of government are still, whencatalogued, found to be much the same both in number and magnitude that theyalways were.  Government does not stop with the protection of life, liberty,and property, as some have supposed; it goes on to serve every convenience ofsociety.  Its sphere is limited only by its own wisdom, alike where republicanand where absolutist principles prevail.      1496. The State's Relation to Property. - A very brief examination of thefacts suffices to confirm this view.  Take, for example, the state's relationto property, its performance of one of the chief of those functions which Ihave called Constituent.  It is in connection with this function that one ofthe most decided contrasts exists between ancient and modern politicalpractice; and yet we shall not find ourselves embarrassed to recognize asnatural the practice of ancient states touching the right of private property.Their theory was extreme, but, outside of Sparta, their practice was moderate.      1497. In Sparta. - Consistent, logical Sparta may serve as the point ofdeparture for our observation.  She is the standing classical type ofexaggerated state functions and furnishes the most extreme example of theantique conception of the relations of the state to property.  In the earlyperiods of her history at least, besides being censor, pedagogue, drillsergeant, and housekeeper to her citizens, she was also universal landlord.There was a distinct reminiscence in her practice of the time when the statewas the family, and as such the sole owner of property.  She was regarded asthe original proprietor of all the land in Laconia, and individual tenure waslooked upon as rather of the nature of a usufruct held of the state and at thestate's pleasure than as resting upon any complete or indefeasible privatetitle.  (Compare sec. 105.)      1498. Peculiar Situation of the Spartans. - There were in Sparta specialreasons for the persistence of such a system.  The Spartans had come intoLaconia as conquerors, and the land had first of all been tribal booty.  Ithad been booty of which the Spartan host as a whole, as a state, had had thedividing, and it had been the purpose of the early arrangement to make thedivision of the land among the Spartan families as equal as possible.  Nor didthe state resign the right of disposition in making this first distribution.It remained its primary care to keep its citizens, the favored Spartiatoe,upon an equal footing of fortune, to the end that they might remain rich in

leisure, and so be the better able to live entirely for the service of thestate, which was honorable, to the avoidance of that pursuit of wealth whichwas dishonorable.  The state, accordingly, undertook to administer the wealthof the country for the benefit of its citizens.  When grave inequalitiesmanifested themselves in the distribution of estates it did not hesitate toresume its proprietary rights and effect a reapportionment; no one dreaming,the while, of calling its action confiscation.  It took various means foraccomplishing its ends. It compelled rich heiresses to marry men withoutpatrimony; and it grafted the poor citizen upon a good estate by means ofprescribed adoption.  No landed estate could be alienated either by sale ortestament from the family to which the state had assigned it unless expresslegislative leave were given.  In brief, in respect of his property thecitizen was both ward and tenant of the state.      1499. Decay of the System. - As the Spartan state decayed this wholesystem was sapped.  Estates became grossly unequal, as did also politicalprivileges even among the favored Spartiatoe.  But these changes were due tothe decadence of Spartan power and to the degeneration of her political fibrein days of waning fortune, not to any conscious or deliberate surrender by thestate of its prerogatives as owner, guardian, and trustee. She had grown oldand lax simply; she had not changed her mind.      1500. In Athens. - When we turn to Athens we experience a marked changein the political atmosphere, though the Athenians hold much the same abstractconception of the state.  Here men breathe more freely and enjoy the fruits oftheir labor, where labor is without reproach, with less restraint.  Even inAthens there remain distinct traces, nevertheless, of the family duties of thestate.  She too, like Sparta, felt bound to dispose properly of eligibleheiresses.  She did not hesitate to punish with heavy forfeiture of right(atimia) those who squandered their property in dissolute living.  There wasas little limit in Athens as in Sparta to the theoretical prerogatives of thepublic authority.  The freedom of the citizen was a freedom of indulgencerather than of right: he was free because the state refrained, - as aprivileged child, not as a sovereign under Rousseau's Law of Nature.      1501. In Rome. - When we shift our view to republican Rome we do not finda simple city omnipotence like that of Greece, in which all private rights aresunk.  The primal constituents of the city yet abide in shapes something liketheir original.  Roman society consists of a series of interdependent links:the family the gens, the city.  The aggregate, not the fusion, of these makesup what we should call the state.  But the state, so made up, was omnipotent,through one or other of its organs, over the individual.  Property was notprivate in the sense of being individual; it vested in the family, which was,in this as in other respects, an organ of the state.  Property was notconceived of as state property, because it had remained the undivided propertyof the family.  The father, as a ruler in the immemorial hierarchy of the

government, was all-powerful trustee of the family estates; individualownership there was none.      1502. Under Modern Governments. - We with some justice felicitateourselves that to this omnipotence of the ancient state in its relations toproperty the practice of our own governments offers the most pronounced contrasts.  But the point of greatest interest for us in the presentconnection is this, that these contrasts are contrasts of policy, not ofpower.  To what lengths it will go in regulating property rights is for eachgovernment a question of principle, which it must put to its own conscience,and which, if it be wise, it will debate in the light of political history:but every government must regulate property in one way or another and mayregulate it as much as it pleases.  If the ancient state was regarded as theultimate owner, the modern state is regarded as the ultimate heir of allestates.  Failing other claimants, property escheats to the state.  If themodern state does not assume, like the ancient, to administer their propertyupon occasion for competent adults, it does administer their property uponoccasion for lunatics and minors.  The ancient state controlled slaves andslavery.  The modern state has been quite as absolute: it has abolished slavesand slavery.  The modern state, no less than the ancient, sets rules andlimitations to inheritance and bequest.  Most of the more extreme and hurtfulinterferences with rights of private ownership government has abandoned, onemay suspect, rather because of difficulties of administration than because ofdifficulties of conscience.  It is of the nature of the state to regulateproperty rights; it is of the policy of the state to regulate them more orless. Administrators must regard this as one of the Constituent functions ofpolitical society.      1503. The State and Political Rights. - Similar conclusions may be drawnfrom a consideration of the contrasts which exist in the field of that otherConstituent function which concerns the determination of political rights, -the contrasts between the status of the citizen in the ancient state and thestatus of the citizen in the modern state.  Here also the contrast, as betweenstate and state, is not one of power, but one of principle and habit rather.Modern states have often limited as narrowly as did the ancient the enjoymentof those political privileges which we group under the word Franchise.  They,too, as well as the ancient states, have admitted slavery into their systems;they too have commanded their subjects without moderation and fleeced themwithout compunction.  But for all they have been so omnipotent, and when theychose so tyrannical, they have seldom insisted upon so complete and unreserveda service of the state by the citizen as was habitual to the politicalpractice of both the Greek and the Roman worlds.  The Greek and the Romanbelonged each to his state in a quite absolute sense.  He was his own innothing as against the claims of his city upon him: he freely acknowledged allhis privileges to be but concessions from his mother, the commonwealth.  Those

privileges accrued to him through law, as do ours; but law was to him simplythe will of the organic community; never, as we know it in our constitutions,a restraint upon the will of the organic community.  He knew no principles ofliberty save only those which custom had built up: which inhered, not in thenature of things, not in abstract individuality, but in the history ofaffairs, in concrete practice.  His principles were all precedents.Nevertheless, however radically different its doctrines, the ancient state wasnot a whit more completely master touching laws of citizenship than the stateof to- day is.      1504. As Regards the State's Ministrant Functions. - Of the Ministrant,no less than of the Constituent functions, the same statement may be made,that practically the state has been relieved of very little duty byalterations of political theory.  It is natural enough that in the field ofthe Constituent functions the state should serve society now as always; inthis field of the Ministrant functions one would expect the state to be lessactive now than formerly.  But there is in fact no such difference: governmentdoes now whatever experience permits or the times demand; and though it doesnot do exactly the same things it still does substantially the same kind ofthings that the ancient state did.  It will conduce to clearness if I setforth my illustrations of this in the order of the list of Ministrantfunctions which I have given (sec. 1479).      1505. (1) The State in Relation to Trade. - All nations have habituallyregulated trade and commerce.  In the most remote periods of which history hasretained any recollection the regulation of trade and commerce was necessaryto the existence of government.  The only way in which communities which werethen seeking to build up a dominant power could preserve an independentexistence and work out an individual development was to draw apart to anabsolutely separate life.  Commerce meant contact; contact meantcontamination: the only way in which to develop character and achieve cohesionwas to avoid intercourse.  In the classical states this stage is passed andtrade and commerce are regulated for much the same reasons that induce modernstates to regulate them, in order, that is, to secure commercial advantage asagainst competitors or in order to serve the fiscal needs of the state.Athens and Sparta and Rome, too, regulated the corn trade for the purpose ofsecuring for their citizens full store of food.  In the Middle Ages the feudsand highway brigandage of petty lords loaded commerce with fetters of the mostharassing sort, except where the free cities could by militant combinationkeep open to it an unhindered passage to and fro between the great marts ofNorth and South.  As the mediaeval states emerge into modern times we findtrade and commerce handled by statesmen as freely as ever, but according tothe reasoned policy of the mercantilist thinkers; and in our own daysaccording to still other conceptions of national advantage.      1506. (2) The State in Relation to Labor. - Labor, too, has always been

regulated by the state.  By Greek and Roman the labor of the handicrafts andof agriculture, all manual toil indeed, was for the most part given to slavesto do; and of course law regulated the slave.  In the Middle Ages the laborwhich was not agricultural and held in bondage to feudal masters was in thecities, where it was rigidly ordered by the complex rules of the guild system,as were trade also and almost all other like forms of making a livelihood.Where, as in England, labor in part escaped from the hard service of thefeudal tenure the state stepped in with its persistent "statutes of laborers"and sought to tie the workman to one habitation and to one rate of wages.'The rustic must stay where he is and must receive only so much pay,' was itscommand.  Apparently, however, all past regulation of labor was but timid andelementary as compared with the labor legislation about to be tried by thegovernments of our own day. The birth and development of the modern industrialsystem has changed every aspect of the matter; and this fact reveals the truecharacter of the part which the state plays in the case.  The rule would seemto be that in proportion as the world's industries grow must the state advancein its efforts to assist the industrious to advantageous relations with eachother.  The tendency to regulate labor rigorously and minutely is as strong inEngland, where the state is considered the agent of the citizen, as it was inAthens, where the citizen was deemed the child and tool of the state, andwhere the workman was a slave.      1507. (3) Regulation of Corporations. - The regulation of corporations isbut one side of the modern regulation of the industrial system, and is afunction added to the antique list of governmental tasks.      1508. (4) The State and Public Works. - The maintenance of thoroughfaresmay be said to have begun with permanent empire, that is to say, for Europe,with the Romans.  For the Romans, indeed, it was first a matter of movingarmies, only secondarily a means of serving commerce; whereas with us thehighway is above all things else an artery of trade, and armies use it onlywhen commerce stands still at the sound of drum and trumpet.  The building ofroads may therefore be said to have begun by being a Constituent function andto have ended by becoming a Ministrant function of government.  But the sameis not true of other public works, of the Roman aqueducts and theatres andbaths, and of modern internal improvements.  They, as much as the Roman tax onold bachelors, are parts, not of a scheme of governing, but of plans for theadvancement of other social aims, - for the administration of society.Because in her conception the community as a whole was the only individual,Rome thrust out as of course her magnificent roads to every quarter of hervast territory, considered no distances too great to be traversed by hertowering aqueducts, deemed it her duty to clear river courses and facilitateby every means both her commerce and her arms.  And the modern state, thoughholding a deeply modified conception of the relations of government tosociety, still follows a like practice.  If in most instances our great ironhighways are left to private management, it is oftener for reasons of

convenience than for reasons of conscience.      1509. (5) Administration of the Conveniences of Society. - Similarconsiderations apply in the case of that modern instrumentality, the publicletter-post, in the case of the still more modern manufacture of gas, and inthe case of the most modern telegraph.  The modern no less than the ancientgovernment unhesitatingly takes a hand in administering the conveniences ofsociety.      1510. (6) Sanitation. - Modern governments, like the government of Rome,maintain sanitation by means of police inspection of baths, taverns, andhouses of ill fame, as well as by drainage; and to these they add hospitalrelief, water supply, quarantine, and a score of other means.      1511. (7) Public Education. - Our modern systems of public education aremore thorough than the ancient, notwithstanding the fact that we regard theindividual as something other than a mere servant of the state, and educatehim first of all for himself.      1512. (8) Sumptuary Laws. - In sumptuary laws ancient states of coursefar outran modern practice.  Modern states have foregone most attempts to makecitizens virtuous or frugal by law.  But even we have our prohibitionenactments; and we have had our fines for swearing.      1513. Summary. - Apparently it is safe to say with regard to thefunctions of government taken as a whole that, even as between ancient andmodern states, uniformities of practice far out-number diversities ofpractice.  One may justly conclude, not indeed that the restraints whichmodern states put upon themselves are of little consequence, or that alteredpolitical conceptions are not of the greatest moment in determining importantquestions of government and even the whole advance of the race; but that it israther by gaining practical wisdom, rather by long processes of historicalexperience, that states modify their practices.  New theories are subsequentto new experiences.

Understanding Basic Government Rules

Familiarize yourself with several laws to improve your ability to work with the Federal Government

Learning Objectives

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

– Identify critical regulations involved in contracting with the federal government.

About FDIC Small Business Resource Effort

• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) recognizes the important contributions made by small, veteran, and minority and women-owned businesses to our economy. For that reason, we strive to provide small businesses with opportunities to contract with the FDIC. In furtherance of this goal, the FDIC has initiated the FDIC Small Business Resource Effort to assist the small vendors that provide products, services, and solutions to the FDIC.

• The objective of the Small Business Resource Effort is to provide information and the tools small vendors need to become better positioned to compete for contracts and subcontracts at the FDIC. To achieve this objective, the Small Business Resource Effort references outside resources critical for qualified vendors, leverages technology to provide education according to perceived needs, and offers connectivity through resourcing, accessibility, counseling, coaching, and guidance where applicable.

• This product was developed by the FDIC Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI). OMWI has responsibility for oversight of the Small Business Resource Effort.  

Executive Summary

Federal Common Law governs how the private sector does business with the federal government.

The procedures and rules can be markedly different from commercial practice, and if not understood, can result in not landing a contract or the inability to execute it properly.

You can minimize problems if you take the time to gain some basic knowledge of these procedures and rules, and learn how the process works.

Federal Common Law

Federal government contracts are governed by what is known as the Federal Common Law. This body of law is completely separate and distinct from the body of law familiar to most businesses, namely the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).

The powers given to the federal government are set forth in the Constitution. The federal government exercises its powers through legislation and regulations issued as prescribed in legislation.

Although the approach to the commercial and government market is similar, the procedures and rules of doing business in the government arena are different.

The Government’s Rights

Because the government is a sovereign entity and uses public funds, it has rights that commercial businesses do not have.

– The government has the right to cancel the contract if the need for the product or service no longer exists. The contractor is entitled to reimbursement for costs incurred.

– The government has the right to unilaterally revise the contract, so long as changes are within the parameters of the contract. The contractor is entitled to equitable cost adjustment, but must comply with the changes.

– The government can impose extensive audit and surveillance requirements under the terms of a contract. However, extensive and stringent requirements are usually imposed only on higher priced contracts (i.e., contracts of $100,000 or more in value).

Agents of the Government

The federal government conducts its business through authorized agents, called Contracting Officers.

Contracting Officers are assisted in their duties by Contracting Officer Representatives and Contracting Officer Technical Representatives, who usually do not have the authority of a Contracting Officer.

– Contracting Officers may sign government contracts on behalf of the government.

– Contracting Officers have only the authority delegated by law and agency procedures. Any action taken by a Contracting Officer that exceeds the Contracting Officer's actual delegated authority is not binding on the government,

even if both the Contracting Officer and the contractor desire the action and the action benefits the government.

– The contractor is presumed to know the scope of the Contracting Officer's authority, and cannot rely on any action of Contracting Officers when they exceed their authority.

Learning the Rules of the Road

All of the Federal Common Laws are publicly available and can be explained in further detail by an agency’s Contracting Officer or Office of Small Business Utilization. However, even the experts do not know all the rules in detail.

Begin to look for certain rules and develop a basic understanding of how the laws, rules, and policies interrelate.

Review the Federal Register, the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of federal agencies and organizations. After rules are published as “final” in the Federal Register, they are included in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), which “codifies” them.

Laws that Affect Government Contracting: The Early Years

Laws that Affect Government Contracting: Modern Updates

Laws that Affect Government Contracting: Recent Reform

Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (FASA) (Slide 1 of 2)

Changed the small purchase level from $25,000 and under to between $3,000 and $100,000, and provided that all these purchases can enjoy "simplified acquisition procedures," which in effect reserves many of these purchases for small businesses. Two of the main purposes of the simplified acquisition procedures are:

– to reduce administrative costs, and

– to improve contract opportunities for small, small disadvantaged, small service-disabled-veteran, and small women-owned businesses.

Mandated that the government use electronic means to issue and award small purchases (termed by the law as "Simplified Acquisition Purchases" or "SAP").

Resulted in the government attempting to go “paperless” for contracts under $100,000.

Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (FASA) (Slide 2 of 2)

Encouraged government buying offices to use credit cards on all procurements under $3,000. The impact on small businesses is:

– minimal paperwork, and

– a real opportunity for any business that accepts credit cards to increase its business.

Established commercial items as the preferred products for the government to buy if they meet the government need.

Ensured that most government specifications and standards will be used only with contracts greater than $100,000.

Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR)

The FAR is found at Title 48 of the CFR and is one of the most important regulatory documents for doing business with the federal government.

The FAR was established to codify uniform policies for acquisition of supplies and services by executive agencies.

The FAR is further defined by individual Agency Supplements that interpret FAR rules consistent with agency policies and procedures.

Relevant parts of FAR for small businesses include Part 19, Small Business Programs, and Part 52, which contains the standard terms and conditions contained in a government contract.

Government Purchasing Thresholds

Additional Rules and Statutes

Key Takeaways from This Module

Because the federal government is a sovereign entity and uses public funds, it has rights that commercial businesses do not have.

Government laws, rules, and policies work together as a framework for contracting.

Knowing government laws and rules will help you better regulate your small business and be in compliance.

Sources and Citations

Business Owner’s Toolkit, Government Rules You Need to Know

Minority Business Development Agency, Federal Contracting Basic

EzineArticles, What Government Purchasing Rules Do You Need to Know?

Aaron R. Jones, ProSidian Consulting, Understanding Government Rules

FindLaw, Federal Government Contract Overview

Wikipedia: Government Procurement in the United States

Albo & Oblon, LLP, Government Contract Law Overview