Over the first week of the semester I have learned about a couple of ideas that have stuck with me. The elements of government such as legitimacy, control, and violence. A government needs all of these aspects to control a place of a piece of land. Without these aspects the government would have little control over its people, and a revolution would be in order.
Each government has to have its own policies to control its people and keep them “safe”. Government polices include such ideas as forceful prohibitions; such as laws, forceful demands and funded programs; such as schools police force and armies.
Also we have learned where some countries fall on the spectrum. On the far left we have libertarian government and the far right would be the socialist government. The US falls just to the left of the middle as with Canada. Close to the right would be Cuba and Sweden.