Quick Revision Notes: Class 6 Social Science

Chapter: What is Government?

Definition: A government is an official organization or system through which a state, nation, or community is ruled and administered. It makes laws and enforces them for the citizens living within its territory.
Core Purpose: To make decisions, maintain law and order, protect borders, and look after the welfare of the people.

Every country needs a government to manage various functions:

Decision Making: To build roads, schools, hospitals, and manage the economy.
Resource Management: To control resources and ensure a fair distribution of goods.
Maintaining Peace: To resolve conflicts and maintain law and order.
National Security: To protect the country's boundaries from external attacks and maintain peaceful relations with other countries.
Social Welfare: To run postal and railway services, and provide relief during natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, etc.

In a vast and diverse country like India, the government works at three different levels:

Local Level (स्थानीय स्तर):
- Works in your village, town, or locality.
- Managed by Village Panchayats, Municipalities, or Municipal Corporations.
State Level (राज्य स्तर):
- Relates to an entire state (e.g., Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh).
- Managed by the State Government (Chief Minister and Ministers).
National Level / Central Level (राष्ट्रीय / केंद्रीय स्तर):
- Relates to the entire country.
- Managed by the Central Government (Prime Minister and Union Ministers).

Broadly, governments can be classified into the following types based on how they acquire power:

Democracy (लोकतंत्र):
- Meaning: "Rule by the people."
- Key Feature: People have the power to elect their leaders through voting in elections. The government is accountable to the people.
- Example: India, USA.
Monarchy (राजतंत्र):
- Meaning: Rule by a king or queen (Monarch).
- Key Feature: The monarch has the power to make decisions and run the government. They do not have to explain their actions to the people. Succession is usually hereditary (family-based).
- Example: Saudi Arabia, Bhutan (historical context).
Dictatorship (तानाशाही):
- Meaning: Rule by a single leader or a small group with absolute power, often taken by force.
- Key Feature: Citizens have little to no political freedom.

Key Characteristic: Universal Adult Franchise (सार्वभौमिक वयस्क मताधिकार) – All adult citizens (usually 18 years and above) have the right to vote regardless of their caste, religion, gender, or economic status.
Representation: Since people cannot rule directly in large countries, they elect representatives who make decisions on their behalf.
Accountability: If the elected government does not work properly, people can vote them out in the next elections.
Suffrage Movement (मतदान का अधिकार आंदोलन):
- Historically, women and the poor had to fight for the right to vote.
- Women in the USA got the right to vote in 1920, and in the UK in 1928.
- In India, right from independence (1947), all adults were given the right to vote (Universal Adult Franchise).