Different Forms of Government

Social Contract Theory

Social contract theory is a system of government founded on the concept that the willingness and consent of the people governed gives a state legitimacy. Under this approach, the ruled agree to give up most or all of their freedom to behave as mandated by the “natural state” in order to build social structures with broad philosophical underpinnings for a semblance of social order. As a result, the governed are bound by a collection of laws known as the constitution. Its benefits include inclusion, fairness, and the possibility of a legitimate government. Alternatively, it is not a system where one gives up their freedom to be governed, but instead, a person has no say in what society they find themselves in.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a system where an action’s rightness or wrongness is wholly dependent on the maximum impact on the overall well-being. Merits include advocacy for happiness, harming is considered morally wrong, it is secular and democratic. Its demerits include the reduction of morality to simple math, skewed justice based on maximizing the greater good and tyranny of the majority. The libertarian system advocates for the freedom of people as rational enough to decide whether something is good or bad. Its strengths are its reliability with United States traditions of the media, advocates for press sovereignty and freedom of expression. Alternatively, it ignores the need for media control and gives too much credence to people’s views.

Marxism

Marxism is a social and economic system of government that views the state as an apparatus of domination of the weak by the powerful. Strengths include advocacy for equality, reduces being prone to debt and union rights are protected. Conversely, it promotes the abolition of religion, limits entrepreneurship and supports communism. Social justice theory, developed BY John Rawl, is a philosophical concept advocating for fairness and justice in dealings between society and the individual. Strength include the focus on individual rights in economic and social terms. The weakness of this theory is how John Rawl does not demonstrate the issue of its adoption into various forms of government like democracy.

The United States Form of Government

Finally, the governing approach that best fits the United States form of government is the social contract theory. The reason for this assertion is the drafting method of the United States constitution. It was based on principles of equality of all men, the protection of inalienable rights and the phrase, “we the people” at the beginning of the constitution. Therefore, the United States constitution bears the hallmarks of a social contract between the governed and the government.