Abstract
This chapter focuses on governments, what type of government each country has, and how these governments transitioned as laws changed regarding within each country. Some references will be made to Australian and South African laws in comparison to the United States. For example, South Africa was a tribal land that became an Apartheid state that then became a democracy. The chapter will mainly focus on introducing the reader to each system of government and discuss any transitions in types of government. These instances will be reviewed, analyzed, and discussed. For more specific country-case-specific laws, see the three chapters on case studies.
My hip hop will rock and shock the nation like the Emancipation Proclamation… -Wu Tang Clan, Da’ Mystery of Chessboxin’, 1993
TopMain Focus Of The Chapter
The main focus of this chapter is to introduce different types of government specific to this book and the countries that have been introduced previously. Therefore, the reader will briefly learn about the Apartheid government of South Africa, Colonization (i.e., of America, Australia, and South Africa), and the UK/British Commonwealth and then Commonwealth Democracy as well as Democracies in general – and specifically to the United States. The author will also introduce how each government was/is dictates its governmental structure and how grievances are addressed. With that being said, let’s begin delving into this topic.
Government
“Much of American law itself, whether we’re aware of it or not, is codified to protect the very system of white supremacy pioneers like Thurgood Marshall and Pauli Murray aimed to dismantle” (Sharpton, 2022, p. 180).
Government is a term that describes “an organization with the authority and power to make and enforce laws and enact policy to control an area of land or a group of people” (Johnson, 2006; Open Education Sociology Dictionary, 2022), which is “a nation, state, or other political entity founded on law and united by a compact of the people for the common good” (Central Intelligence Agency, n.d., p. 1). According to Philpott (2010) regarding American governance, the government is “any entity of the legislative or judicial branch, any executive agency, military department, government corporation, or independent establishment, the United States Postal Service, or any nonappropriated - fund instrumentality of the Armed Forces (FAR 8.701)” (p. 104). It is a form of authority that leads one to hold an office and make the final decisions for the people (Fasenfast, 2010) who live in a certain region. Throughout the world, there are various governments (Central Intelligence Agency, n.d.; Fasenfast, 2010). These governments had/have a myriad of laws (Central Intelligence Agency, n.d.; Fasenfast, 2010; Johnson, 2006). In fact, governments must learn to communicate with their constituents in order to convey messages, etc. (Carter, Kemper, Brown & Phillips, 2009).
In the case of the three countries that this book focuses on, the governments range from being an Apartheid state to a Democracy. However, each of them began by initially being tribal.
Figure 1.
Picture of a Native American Tribe
Key Terms in this Chapter
Civil Rights: A specific class of rights that protect citizens (e.g., United States citizens) and their freedoms.
Civil Rights Movement: A movement launched from approximately 1954 to 1968, which aimed at ending discrimination, institutional racism, segregation, and the like within the United States. Some of its leaders were people like Medgar Evers, Louis Farrakhan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, et al.’
Human Rights: Rights that are deemed inherent to any human being on the face of the earth regardless of their country of origin.
Democracy: Coming from demos and kratos. Meaning a government that is ruled by the people.
Tribal Law: A form of governance that is specific to a tribe.
Government: a body of governance or entity that contains various branches to administer services throughout various jurisdictions.
Jim Crow Laws: Laws that were instituted by the White man during the reconstruction period after the Civil War had ended. These laws sought to maintain segregation of the races; mainly Whites and Blacks.
Commonwealth: A union of nations, specifically 54 that work towards the common good, consisting of 2.5 billion members.
Apartheid: A policy of keeping the races “separate” or “apart” from one another.
Tribe: A group of people who are kin and bound by said kinship as well as demarking a certain/particular territory of land.