Basis of Government: Why States Need Government
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Lesson overview
Why people accept government: theories of its origin, the functions it performs, and the core concepts of power, authority, legitimacy, political socialisation and political culture.
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Pacing
~40 seconds per MCQ (180 questions in 120 minutes, no negative marking).
How JAMB marks this
Fast dimensional/sign elimination and standard formula shortcuts — skip multi-line algebra when substitution tests options faster.
Watch out for
UTME distractors routinely include the intermediate value (e.g., forgetting to convert cm³ to dm³ or °C to Kelvin).
Lesson content
Overview
Why do millions of people obey a small number of office-holders? Force alone cannot explain it, because no police force is large enough to compel everyone. People obey mostly because they accept that the rulers have the right to rule. This lesson explains that acceptance. You will meet the theories that explain why government exists (divine right, force and social contract), the functions government performs, and the basic concepts that JAMB tests every year: power, authority, legitimacy, political socialisation and political culture.
Key concepts
Power: the ability to make others act as you wish, even against their will, through force, threat, reward or persuasion. Authority: the recognised right to exercise power. Authority is power that people accept as rightful. An armed robber has power but no authority; a traffic warden has authority even without a gun. Legitimacy: the acceptance by the governed that a government's right to rule is lawful and proper. Legitimacy turns power into authority. Free and fair elections, constitutional procedures and good performance increase it. Political socialisation: the process by which people learn political values, beliefs and attitudes. Its agents include the family, school, peer group, religious bodies, the mass media and political parties. Political culture: the shared attitudes, beliefs and values of a people towards their political system.
Theories of the origin of government
• Divine right theory: rulers are chosen by God and answer only to God, so rebellion is a sin. It supported absolute monarchs in Europe and is weakened by the idea that power comes from the people. • Force theory: government began when the strong conquered the weak. It explains how many states were founded, but force alone cannot keep a government in office for long. • Social contract theory: people agreed to give up some freedoms to a ruler in return for protection. Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651) described life without government as 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short', and favoured an absolute ruler. John Locke (Two Treatises of Government, 1689) argued that people keep natural rights to life, liberty and property, and may remove a government that violates them. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract, 1762) placed sovereignty in the 'general will' of the people. • Natural or evolutionary theory: Aristotle held that 'man is by nature a political animal'; government grew naturally from the family to the village to the state. Whatever its origin, government exists to perform functions that individuals cannot perform alone: maintaining law and order, defending the territory, protecting rights, providing public services such as roads, schools and hospitals, managing the economy and conducting relations with other states.
Types of authority, socialisation and political culture
Max Weber identified three types of authority. Traditional authority rests on custom and inheritance, as with an emir or an oba. Charismatic authority rests on the exceptional personal qualities of a leader. Legal-rational authority rests on rules and offices: a governor's authority comes from the constitution and from winning an election, not from who he is. Political socialisation passes values from one generation to the next. A child learns attitudes to authority at home, learns national symbols and civic duties at school, picks up opinions from friends and the media, and is mobilised by parties at election time. Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba (The Civic Culture, 1963) described three types of political culture. In a parochial culture people have little awareness of the national political system. In a subject culture people are aware of government and obey it but do not expect to influence it. In a participant culture people are aware of government and take an active part through voting, debate and joining organisations.
Worked example 1: power without authority
A group of soldiers seizes the national radio station and announces that it has taken over the government. Most citizens refuse to obey its orders. The soldiers have A. authority but no power B. power but no legitimacy C. legitimacy but no authority D. sovereignty and legitimacy
Active Worked Example · Predict Step 1
4 stepsWrite down the formula, rule, or first move you would make before revealing Step 1.
Worked example 2: identifying the agent of socialisation
Pupils recite the National Pledge and learn the duties of a citizen in Civic Education lessons. This is political socialisation through A. the family B. the peer group C. the school D. political parties
Active Worked Example · Predict Step 1
3 stepsWrite down the formula, rule, or first move you would make before revealing Step 1.
Worked example 3 (UTME standard): the source of legitimacy
A governor's right to issue orders rests on the constitution and his victory in an election, not on his family or personal magnetism. This is an example of A. traditional authority B. charismatic authority C. legal-rational authority D. coercive power
Active Worked Example · Predict Step 1
4 stepsWrite down the formula, rule, or first move you would make before revealing Step 1.
Common traps
• Power and authority are not synonyms: authority is power plus legitimacy. • Hobbes and Locke both used the social contract but reached opposite conclusions: absolute ruler (Hobbes) versus limited government (Locke). • Political culture is the attitude; political socialisation is the process by which the attitude is learned. • Legitimacy can be lost. A government that rigs elections or performs badly may keep power but lose authority.
Summary
• Government exists to keep order, defend the state, protect rights and provide services. • Origin theories: divine right, force, social contract (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau) and natural evolution (Aristotle). • Power is the ability to compel; authority is the accepted right to rule; legitimacy is the acceptance that turns one into the other. • Weber's authority types: traditional, charismatic and legal-rational. • Political socialisation (family, school, peers, religion, media, parties) shapes political culture (parochial, subject, participant).
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