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2009-09-21T16:25:16Z

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government

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[[Image:Government-Vedder-Highsmith-detail-1.jpeg|thumb|300px|Detail from [[Elihu Vedder]], ''Government'' (1896). Library of Congress [[Thomas Jefferson Building]], Washington, D.C.]]

A '''government''' is the body within an [[organization]] that has the [[authority]] to make and enforce rules, [[law]]s and regulations.

Typically, the government refers to a [[civil government]] which can be either local, national, or international. However, [[commerce|commercial]], academic, [[religion|religious]], or other formal organizations are also governed by internal bodies. Such bodies may be called [[Board of directors|boards of directors]], managers, or [[governor]]s or they may be known as the administration (as in schools) or [[Council of elders|councils of elders]] (as in churches). The size of governments can vary by region or purpose.

Growth of an organization advances the [[complexity]] of its government, therefore small towns or small-to-medium privately-operated enterprises will have few officials compared to larger organizations such as multinational corporations which will have multiple interlocking, [[hierarchy|hierarchical]] layers of administration and governance. As complexity increases and the nature of governance becomes more complicated,so does the need for formal policies and procedures.

Public sector governance is studied as [[Public Administration]] while that in the private sector is studied as [[Business Administration]].

The concept of government has been around since humanity itself where [[hunter-gatherers]] would commonly establish tribes high authority and have unique ideals. However, government is not limited to the human species itself as many animals establish groups such as [[ants]], [[lions]], and [[bees]]. Although, a common trait of animals, specifically mammals and colony insects are a social caste that may work in a governmental way.

== Types of State Governments ==
[[Image:DSC04509.JPG|thumb|The [[United States Capitol]] houses the [[United States Congress]], the [[Federal government of the United States|federal]] legislature.]]
[[Image:SansadBhavan.jpg|thumb|The [[Parliament of India]], is the home of the law making (legislative) branch of [[India]]n government.]]

*[[Constitutional monarchy]] - A government that has a [[monarch]], but his/her power is strictly limited by the government. Example: [[United Kingdom]]<ref> [[Takis Fotopoulos|Fotopoulos, Takis]], ''The Multidimensional Crisis and [[Inclusive Democracy]]''. (Athens: Gordios, 2005).([http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/english/brbooks/multi_crisis_id.htm English translation] of the book with the same title published in Greek).</ref><ref name="victoria"> {{cite web|url=http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/SARC/E-Democracy/Final_Report/Glossary.htm |title=Victorian Electronic Democracy : Glossary |date=July 28, 2005| accessdate=2007-12-14}} </ref>
*[[Constitutional republic]] -- Rule by a government composed of representatives who are voted into power by the people.
*[[Democracy]] - Rule by a government where all [citizens] are represented but power is held by the [[majority]].
*[[Dictatorship]] - Rule by an individual who has full power over the country.<ref>American 503</ref> See also [[Autocracy]] and [[Stratocracy]].
*[[Monarchy]] - Rule by an individual who has inherited the role and expects to bequeath it to their heir.<ref>American 1134</ref>
*[[Oligarchy]] - Rule by a small group of people who share similar interests or family relations.<ref>American 1225</ref>
*[[Plutocracy]] - A government composed of the wealthy class. Any of the forms of government listed here can be plutocracy. For instance, if all of the voted representatives in a republic are wealthy, then it is a republic and a plutocracy.
*[[Theocracy]] - Rule by a religious elite.<ref>American 1793</ref>

Other Classifications:
*[[Anarchism]] - Absence of government. <ref>American 65</ref> Anarchism is not a form of government—it is the belief that governments are harmful and unnecessary.
*[[Totalitarianism]] - Characterized by a state that regulates nearly every aspect of public and private life.
*[[Authoritarianism]] - Characterized by an emphasis on the authority of the state in a republic or union. It is a political system controlled by nonelected rulers who usually permit some degree of individual freedom.

The extent to which a government can be classified varies by degree. For example, [[Iran]] can be seen as democratic, authoritarian and theocratic while constitutional monarchies such as [[the Netherlands]] combine elements of monarchy and democracy.<ref>
{{cite web
|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/IR.html
|title=CIA World Factbook -- Iran
|date=2007
|accessdate=2007-12-04
|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency
}} ([https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/IR.html printable version])</ref><ref>
{{cite web
|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/NL.html
|title=CIA - World Factbook -- Netherlands
|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency
|date=2007
|accessdate=2007-12-04
}}
</ref>

==Origin of government==

For many thousands of years when people were [[hunter-gatherer]]s and small scale farmers, humans lived in small, non-hierarchical and [[self-sufficient]] communities. On occasion a chief of a tribe was elected by various rituals or tests of strength to govern his tribe, sometimes with a group of elder tribesmen as a council. Though this was not always the case. The human ability to precisely communicate abstract, learned information allowed humans to become ever more effective at agriculture,<ref name="christian networked">Christian 146-147</ref> and that allowed for ever increasing population densities.<ref name="christian 245">Christian 245</ref> David Christian explains how this resulted in states with laws and governments:

{{quote|As farming populations gathered in larger and denser communities, interactions between different groups increased and the social pressure rose until, in a striking parallel with star formation, new structures suddenly appeared, together with a new level of complexity. Like stars, cities and states reorganize and energize the smaller objects within their gravitational field.|David Christian, p. 245|<u>Maps of Time</u>}}

The exact moment and place that the phenomenon of human government developed is lost in time; however, history does record the formations of very early governments. About 5,000 years ago, the first small city-states appeared.<ref name="christian 245"/> By the third to second millenniums BC, some of these had developed into larger governed areas: [[Sumer]], [[Ancient Egypt]], the [[Indus Valley Civilization]], and the [[List of Neolithic cultures of China|Yellow River Civilization]].<ref name="christian 294"/>

States formed as the results of a positive feedback loop where ''population growth'' results in ''increased information exchange'' which results in ''innovation'' which results in ''increased resources'' which results in further population growth.<ref>Christian 253</ref><ref>
Most of this sentence is in the present tense because the process is still ongoing.
</ref> The role of cities in the feedback loop is important. Cities became the primary conduits for the dramatic increases in information exchange that allowed for large and densely packed populations to form, and because cities concentrated knowledge, they also ended up concentrating power.<ref>Christian 271</ref><ref>The concept of the city itself became a self-reinforcing cycle. "The creation of such large and dense communities ''required'' new forms of power", and since cities concentrate power, the new (sovereign) rulers had incentives to build and expand cities to further increase their power.(Christian 271,321)</ref> "Increasing population density in farming regions provided the demographic and physical raw materials used to construct the first cities and states, and increasing congestion provided much of the motivation for creating states."<ref name="christian 248">Christian 248</ref>

===Fundamental purpose of government===
According to supporters of government, the fundamental purpose of government is the maintenance of basic security and [[social order|public order]].<ref>Schulze 81</ref> The philosopher [[Thomas Hobbes]] figured that people, as rational animals, saw submission to a government dominated by a sovereign as preferable to [[anarchism|anarchy]].<ref name="dietz 68">Dietz 68</ref><ref name="hobbes"/>

People in a community ''create'' and ''submit to'' government for the purpose of establishing for themselves, safety and public order.<ref name="hobbes">[http://www.iep.utm.edu/s/soc-cont.htm#H2 Social Contract Theory]</ref><ref name="hobbes transfer">Dietz 65-66</ref><ref>Hobbes idea of the necessity of the formation of government is known as the [[social contract]] theory.</ref><ref>The field of study and thought about the necessity of governments and governments' relationships with people is known as [[political philosophy]].</ref>

===Early governments===
These are examples of some of the earliest known governments:

* '''[[Sumer]]'''—5200 BC<ref name="christian 294"/>
* '''[[Ancient Egypt]]'''—3000 BC<ref name="christian 294">Christian 294</ref>
* '''[[Indus Valley Civilization]]'''—3000 BC<ref name="christian 294"/><ref name="higham">Higham, "Indus Valley Civilization"</ref>
* '''Yellow River Civilization ([[China]])'''—2000 BC<ref name="christian 294"/>
* '''[[Jiroft Civilization]]'''-3rd millennium BC
* '''[[Norte Chico civilization]]'''-3000 BC<ref>{{cite journal | last = Haas | first = Jonathan | coauthors = Winifred Creamer, Alvaro Ruiz | date = 23 December 2004 | title = Dating the Late Archaic occupation of the Norte Chico region in Peru | journal = Nature | volume = 432 | issue = | pages = 1020–1023 | doi = 10.1038/nature03146 | accessdate = 2009-08-03}}</ref>

===Expanded roles for government===
====Military defense====

The fundamental purpose of government is to protect one from his or her neighbours; however, a sovereign of one country is not necessarily sovereign over the people of another country. The need for people to defend themselves against potentially ''thousands'' of non-neighbors necessitates a national defense mechanism—a [[military]]{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}}.

Militaries are created to deal with the highly complex task of confronting large numbers of enemies. A farmer can defend himself from a single enemy person—or even five enemies, but he can't defend himself from twenty thousand—even with the help of his strongest and bravest family members. A far larger group would be needed, and despite the fact that most of the members of the group would not be related by family ties, they would have to learn to fight for one another ''as if'' they were all in the same family. An organization that trains people to do this is an [[army]].

Wars and armies predated governments, but once governments came onto the scene, they proceeded to dominate the formation and use of armies. Governments seek to maintain monopolies on the use of force,<ref name="adler 80">Adler 80-81</ref> and to that end, they usually suppress the development of private armies within their states.

====Security (Internal)====
but the fact remains.

====Economic security====

Increasing complexities in society resulted in the formations of governments, but the increases in complexity didn't stop. As the complexity and interdependency's of human communities moved forward, economies began to dominate the human experience enough for an individual's survival potential to be affected substantially by the region's economy. Governments were originally created for the purpose of increasing people's survival potentials, and in that same purpose, governments became involved in manipulating and managing regional economies.<ref>Schulze 13,58</ref> One of a great many examples would be [[Wang Mang]]'s attempt to reform the currency in favor of the peasants and poor in ancient China.<ref>General Zhaoyun par. 1</ref>

At a bare minimum, government ensures that [[money]]'s value will not be undermined by prohibiting [[counterfeiting]], but in almost all societies—including [[capitalism|capitalist]] ones—governments attempt to regulate many more aspects of their economies.<ref>Interestingly, during [[World War I]], the "capitalist" countries of Europe implemented economic measures that would make a [[socialist]] proud.(Schulze 275)</ref> However, very often, government involvement in a national economy has more than just a purpose of stabilizing it for the benefit of the people. Often, the members of government shape the government's economic policies for their own benefits. This will be discussed shortly.

====Social security====

Social security is related to economic security. Throughout most of human history, parents prepared for their old age by producing enough children to ensure that some of them would survive long enough to take care of the parents in their old age.<ref name="nebel 165">Nebel 165-166</ref> In modern, relatively high-income societies, a mixed approach is taken where the government shares a substantial responsibility of taking care of the elderly.<ref name="nebel 165"/>

This is not the case everywhere since there are still many countries where social security through having many children is the norm. Although social security is a relatively recent phenomenon, prevalent mostly in developed countries, it deserves mention because the existence of social security substantially changes reproductive behavior in a society, and it has an impact on reducing the ''cycle of poverty''.<ref name="nebel 165"/> By reducing the cycle of poverty, government creates a self-reinforcing cycle where people see the government as friend both because of the financial support they receive late in their lives, but also because of the overall reduction in national poverty due to the government's social security policies—which then adds to public support for social security.<ref>
Bruce Bartlett. [http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/Social-Security-Then-and-Now-9867 ''Social Security Then and Now'']. <u>COMMENTARY</u>. March 2005, Vol. 119, No. 3, pp. 52-56. In the online version on paragraph 13 it suggests that, During the [[Great Depression]], Roosevelt wanted to suppress revolutionary tendencies by tying workers to the state—hence a state-run social security system. Also read the paragraphs above where it talks about populist demagogues and socialist revolutions in other countries. Tying workers to the state through social security was a politically strategic move designed to preserve the United States of America and its democracy.
</ref>

====Healthcare====
Governments play a major role (with importance varying from a country to another) in contributing to the [[health]] of the citizens.
This role includes funding (directectly or indirectly via subsidies) and even managing the healthcare system.
It also contributes by elaborating [[Laws]] aiming at protecting the health of the citizens.

====Environmental security====
Governments play a crucial role in managing environmental public goods such as the atmosphere, forests and water bodies. Governments are valuable institutions for resolving problems involving these public goods at both the local and global scales (e.g., [[climate change]], [[deforestation]], [[overfishing]]). Although in recent decades the economic market has been championed by certain quarters as a suitable mechanism for managing environmental entities, markets have serious failures and governmental intervention and regulation and the rule of law is still required for the proper, just and sustainable management of the environment.

====Education====
The government plays a central role in the education of the citizens. In particular it finances (directly or via subsidizing) a huge portion of the educational system (Schools, Universities, continuous education).

==Aspects of government==

[[File:Houses.of.parliament.overall.arp.jpg|thumb|right|The House of Commons, the '[[Mother of all Parliaments]]']]

Governments vary greatly, and the situation of [[citizens]] within their governments can vary greatly from person to person. For many people, government is seen as a positive force.

===Abuse of Power===
{{POV-section|date=September 2009}}
Human beings govern, and given human nature, what constitutes good governance has been a subject written about since the earliest books known. In the western tradition [[Plato]] wrote extensively on the question, most notably in [[The Republic]]. He (in the voice of Socrates) asked if the purpose of government was to help ones friends and hurt ones enemies, for example. [[Aristotle]], Plato's student picked up the subject in his treatise on [[Politics]]. Many centuries later, [[John Locke]] addressed the question of abuse of power by writing on the importance of checks and balances <ref>http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/john-locke-natural-rights-to-life-liberty-and-property/</ref> to prevent or at least constrain abuse. Many scholars believe that [[Thomas Jefferson]] was influenced by John Locke <ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/influence.html</ref>, and certainly Locke's phrase "life, liberty and property" is similar to Jefferson's "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness".

In Constitutional Democracies, where authority is vested in elected and appointed persons, it is considered to be an abuse of power to seek to manipulate laws or regulations to benefit either themselves or undeclared private interest(s) at the expense of the governed. Due to the complexity of government, higher-ranking members of democratic governments can manipulate economic and tax policies, law enforcement, the judicial process, contracts, and the selective taking of land to name but a few. Locke asserted that the most effective way to control such abuse is through a system of Checks and Balances. As an example of checks and balances, in the United States of American, this is accomplished by separating the powers of policy making (legislating), implementation (administrative) and regulating (judicial) by creating the Congress, the Presidency and the Federal Court System with the Supreme Court at the top. To these three Constitutional bodies, Thomas Jefferson recommended ten amendments - also known as the [[United States Bill of Rights]], the first of which guaranteed the freedom of speech and of the press, the freedom of the people to peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. These additional freedoms provide more checks and balances.

In other forms of government, such as [[Absolute Monarchy]] the concept of abuse of power would be very different. For example, while a President may commit treason, an absolute monarch cannot since they are the law. While people of the western democratic tradition may find this unjust, it is not considered an abuse of power, since all power lies in the hands of the monarch.

===Support for democracy===
Government, especially in democratic and republican forms, can be seen as the entity for a sovereign people to establish the type of society, laws and national objectives that are desired collectively.

===Religion===
Government can benefit or suffer from religion, as religion can benefit or suffer from government. While governments can threaten people with physical harm for observed violations of the law, religion often provides a psychological disincentive for socially destructive or anti-government actions.<ref name="dietz 151">Dietz 151n70</ref><ref name="damnation">
Dietz 138</ref> Religion can also give people a perceived sense of peace and resolve even when they are in trying circumstances, and when an individual's religious beliefs are aligned with the government's, that person will tend to see government as a friend—especially during religious controversies. Although, [[multiculturalism]] makes this relevant to a far less degree.

==Legitimacy==

[[Anarchists]] question the legitimacy of government/state power. [[Statists]] have attempted to come up with a way to legitimize this authority.

[[Social contract]] theorists, such as [[Thomas Hobbes]] and [[Jean-Jacques Rosseau]], believe that governments reduce people's freedom/rights in exchange for protecting them, and maintaining order. Many people question however, whether this is an actual exchange (where people voluntarily give up their freedoms), or whether they are taken by threat of force by the ruling party.

Other statist theorists, like [[David Hume]], give different definitions of legitimacy as they disagree with social contract theory.

==Negative Aspects of Government==
===War===

In the most basic sense, people of one nation will see the government of another nation as the enemy when the two nations are at war. For example, the people of [[Carthage]] saw the [[Rome|Roman]] government as the enemy during the [[Punic wars]].<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://history.boisestate.edu/WESTCIV/punicwar/
|title=The Punic Wars
|last=E.L. Skip Knox
|accessdate=2007-12-14
|publisher=Department of History, Boise State University
}}
</ref>

===Enslavement===

In early [[human history]], the outcome of war for the defeated was often enslavement. The enslaved people would not find it easy to see the conquering government as a friend.

===Religious opposition===

There is a flip side to the phenomenon of people's ability to view a government as a friend because they share the government's religious views. People with opposing religious views will have a greater tendency to view that government as their enemy. A good example would be the condition of [[Roman Catholicism in England]] before the [[Catholic Emancipation]]. Protestants—who were politically dominant in [[England]]—used political, economic and social means to reduce the size and strength of Catholicism in England over the 16th to 18th centuries, and as a result, Catholics in England felt that their religion was being oppressed.<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05445a.htm
|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: England (Since the Reformation)
|accessdate=2007-12-14
|date=1913
|publisher=www.newadvent.org
}}
</ref>

===Class oppression===

Whereas capitalists in a capitalist country may tend to see that nation's government as their friend, a class-aware group of industrial workers—a [[proletariat]]—may see things very differently. If the proletariat wishes to take control of the nation's [[means of production|productive resources]], and they are blocked in their endeavors by continuing adjustments in the law made by capitalists in the government,<ref>
Christian 358
</ref> then the proletariat will come to see the government as their enemy—especially if the conflicts become violent.

The same situation can occur among peasants. The peasants in a country, e.g. Russia during the reign of [[Catherine the Great]], may revolt against their landlords, only to find that their revolution is put down by government.

== Critical views and alternatives ==
The relative merits of various forms of government have long been debated by philosophers, politicians and others. However, in recent times, the traditional conceptions of government and the role of government have also attracted increasing criticism from a range of sources. Some argue that the traditional conception of government, which is heavily influenced by the zero-sum perceptions of state actors and focuses on obtaining security and prosperity at a national level through primarily unilateral action, is no longer appropriate or effective in a modern world that is increasingly connected and interdependent. One such school of thought is [[human security]], which advocates for a more people-based (as opposed to state-based) conception of security, focusing on protection and empowerment of individuals. Human security calls upon governments to recognise that insecurity and instability in one region affects all and to look beyond national borders in defining their interests and formulating policies for security and development. Human security also demands that governments engage in a far greater level of cooperation and coordination with not only domestic organisations, but also a range of international actors such as foreign governments, intergovernmental organisations and non-government organisations.

Whilst human security attempts to provide a more holistic and comprehensive approach to world problems, its implementation still relies to a large extent on the will and ability of governments to adopt the agenda and appropriate policies. In this sense, human security provides a critique of traditional conceptions of the role of government, but also attempts to work within the current system of state-based international relations. Of course, the unique characteristics of different countries and resources available are some constraints for governments in utilising a human security framework.

===Anarchism===

[[Anarchists]] are those who disagree with using government violence as a means to solve complex social issues - or, in other words, they say that no entity can be self-legitimated to use force and explicit [[consent]] is necessary for legitimacy within a collective group or government. There are many forms of anarchist theories but under anarchy, these many different groups and individuals would seemingly need to deal with each other in the same way that people deal with their neighbors in the real world. Some anarchists, such as [[anarcho-syndicalists]] or [[anarcho-primitivism|anarcho-primitivists]], advocate [[egalitarianism]] and [[hierarchy|non-hierarchical]] societies while others, such as [[anarcho-capitalists]], advocate [[free markets]], [[individual sovereignty]] and [[Political freedom|freedom]].

See [[Anarchic Governments Paradox]].

===Critics of Governmental Role, Legitimacy and Efficiency===
*[[Noam Chomsky]]
*[[Friedrich Hayek]]
*[[Michel Foucault]]
*[[Robert Nozick]]
*[[Ludwig von Mises]]
*[[Murray Rothbard]]
*[[Lysander Spooner]]
*[[Henry David Thoreau]]
*[[Karl Marx]]
*[[Stefan Molyneux]]
*[[Robert LeFevre]]

==See also==
===Governmental roles===
<div style="-moz-column-count:3; column-count:3;">
* [[Caesar (title)]]
* [[Chief Minister]]
* [[Citizenship|Citizen]]
* [[Tsar]]
* [[Emir]]
* [[Emperor]]
* [[Favourite]]
* [[Figurehead]]
* [[Governor]]
* [[Head of government]]
* [[Head of state]]
* Khalifa
* King ([[Shah]])
* [[Leadership]]
* [[Monarch]]
* [[Premier]]
* [[President]]
* [[Prime Minister]]
* [[Statesman]]
* [[Sultan]]
</div>

=== Types of governance ===
* [[Constitutional monarchy]]
* [[Democracy]]
* [[List of forms of government]]
* [[Sovereignty|Sovereign]]

=== Related topics ===
* [[Governance]]
* [[Governments of present-day nations and states]]
* [[Human security]]
* [[Official statistics]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

== References ==
* {{cite book
|title=The Common Sense of Politics
|last=Adler
|first=Mortimer J.
|date=1996
|publisher=Fordham University Press, New York
|isbn=0-8232-1666-7
}}

* {{cite book
|title=American Heritage dictionary of the English language
|edition=4th
|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] Company
|location=222 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02116
|isbn=0-395-82517-2
|pages=572, 770
|ids=american
|author=executive editor, Joseph P. Pickett
|year=1992
}}

* {{cite book
|title=Maps of Time
|last=Christian
|first=David
|date=2004
|publisher=University of California Press
|isbn=0-520-24476-1
}}

* {{cite book
|title=Thomas Hobbes & Political Theory
|last=Dietz
|first=Mary G.
|date=1990
|publisher=University Press of Kansas
|isbn=0-7006-0420-0
}}

* {{cite web
|url=http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?showtopic=565
|title=WANG MANG: China History Forum
|last=General Zhaoyun
|publisher=China History Forum
|date=2004-08-04
|accessdate=2007-11-02
}}

* {{cite web
|url=http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Government
|title=LoveToKnow Classic Encyclopedia
|publisher=LoveToKnow Corp.
|accessdate=2007-12-04
|date=1911
}}

* {{cite book
|title=A History of World Societies
|last=McKay
|first=John P.
|coauthors=Bennett D. Hill, John Buckler
|date=1996
|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] Company
|isbn=0-395-75379-1
}}

* {{cite web
|url=http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=government
|title=WordNet Search 3.0
|accessdate=2007-11-10
|work=WordNet a lexical database for the English language
|publisher=Princeton University/Cognitive Science Laboratory /221 Nassau St./ Princeton, NJ 08542
|first=George A.
|last=Miller
|coauthors=Christiane Fellbaum, and Randee Tengi, and Pamela Wakefield, and Rajesh Poddar, and Helen Langone, and Benjamin Haskell
|date=2006
|id=wordnet:earth science
}}

* {{cite book
|title=Environmental Science (7th ed.)
|last=Nebel
|first=Bernard J.
|coauthors=Richard T. Wright
|publisher=Prentice Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
|date=2007
|isbn=0-13-083134-4
}}

* {{cite book
|title=States, Nations and Nationalism
|last=Schulze
|first=Hagen
|date=1994
|publisher=Blackwell Publishers Inc, 350 Main Street, Malden, Massachusetts 02148, USA
}}

== Additional references ==

*{{cite web|author=Higham, Charles F. W.|title=Indus Valley Civilization|work=Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations|location=New York|year=2004|work=Ancient and Medieval History Online|publisher=Facts On File, Inc.|url=http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE49&iPin=EAAC0309&SingleRecord=True|accessdate=2007-12-07}}
:*Kenoyer, J. M. ''Ancient Cities of the Indus Civilization''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998
:*[[Gregory Possehl|Possehl, Gregory L.]] ''Harappan Civilization: A Recent Perspective''. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993
:*''Indus Age: The Writing System''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996
:*“Revolution in the Urban Revolution: The Emergence of Indus Urbanisation,” ''Annual Review of Anthropology'' 19 (1990): 261–282.

*{{cite web|author=Higham, Charles F. W.|title=History of ancient and medieval Asia|location=New York|publisher=Facts On File, Inc.|year=2004|work=Ancient and Medieval History Online|url=http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE49&iPin=EAAC0871&SingleRecord=True|accessdate=2007-12-07}}

== External links ==
*{{dmoz|Society/Government}}

[[Category:Government| ]]

About government - Revision history

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	*{{cite web\|author=Higham, Charles F. W.\|title=History of ancient and medieval Asia\|location=New York\|publisher=Facts On File, Inc.\|year=2004\|work=Ancient and Medieval History Online\|url=http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE49&iPin=EAAC0871&SingleRecord=True\|accessdate=2007-12-07}}<!-- name: higham history -->		*{{cite web\|author=Higham, Charles F. W.\|title=History of ancient and medieval Asia\|location=New York\|publisher=Facts On File, Inc.\|year=2004\|work=Ancient and Medieval History Online\|url=http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE49&iPin=EAAC0871&SingleRecord=True\|accessdate=2007-12-07}}<!-- name: higham history -->

	~~== External links ==~~
	*{{dmoz\|Society/Government}}


	[[Category:Government\| ]]		[[Category:Government\| ]]