Anfetamina Tóxica

Opinion Essay about “Government as a Service Institution” by Anfetamina Tóxica

How the government works, decides the destiny of a nation-state. In common sense, the government was created to serve the nation, to find ways to exploit land, give it to the community and search for new ways to convert land into valuable and productive areas. Take the example of the Unites States class government, it controlled land and resources, exploited land, looked out for the community that wanted to expand and gave them land for production. Nevertheless, the situation of the government changed and turned to be that the power not only resided in the government, but also in the individual. The individual started to secure his land and looked at his government as an institution that will protect his lands and his right of ownership of land. The government changed to a pluralistic type, where the power was divided among various groups wide spread all over the territory. Also, the great importance of government was that it took the decisions that organized and developed the nation. For example, constructing public services such as canals and railroads to increase the development of it.

A working government is the one that serves the people by organizing and developing their power as individuals. Actually, is supposed to be that the concept of power resides in the individual and not in the government. First, government gave out land, its power, to work it. Then, it lost part of its power because individuals started to get ownership over land. Its power passed to individuals and then to corporations. So it is clear that the concept which the individual has over his government is that it serves for his purposes. Government exists to protect his integrity, rights, and to develop and organize the nation. These ideas that the government must serve the community is what affected the Unites States and Mexican elections of 2000.

Both of the past elections of 2000 showed that the different governments have serious problems and that they weren’t working correctly. First of all, we are going to see the case of the Unites States elections between Al Gore and George Bush. From my point of view, the objective of both parties wasn’t to contribute to the development of the nation, but to win at any cost and finally gain complete power. Then, what the politic parties wanted to do was to remove the power from the individuals and just left the power to those corporations that had enough money to achieve their ambitious goals. This is a mere example of American bureaucratism because the power will reside in an inexperienced elite group, and this group of people will make bad decisions.

Even Bush and Gore searched for power, the one who made the difference was Bush. Both promised to bring dignity to the nation and government after what happened in the past presidential period. Plus, they promised to serve the community with medical care, social security reforms, giving more security and education. Both purposed the same ideas, the votes were almost equal, but in the state of Florida the future was decided: Bush won the game. The fact that made the difference was that Bush used great merchandising strategies, he created a personality of a great future president and assured his victory before elections by using the saying: “We have won”.

The same story happened with the Mexican elections between Fox, Labastida and other candidates. According to Mexican history, the first government established by the Aztecs was paternalist. Later on, Mexico had an elitist government that was brought by the Spaniards and that is still present in our days. This kind of government is combined with a corrupt bureaucratic system, populist ideals and fatalistic thoughts about the future nation. The political, social and economical problems are attributed to the political party that managed the government. For 75 years, the political party “PRI” had the absolute power over government and Mexican citizens were tired of the corruption of this party. Mexicans needed a transition of power and go against the PRI tradition. They decided to make the difference. As Fox said: “Tu voto sí vale”, they voted for the candidate that really wanted to serve the Mexican community and not just wanted to obtain power.

PRI was history before the elections and between all possible candidates, the one who had enough personality to be the next president was Fox. His personality was attractive, he could manage communication in all sectors of the nation, he promoted Mexicans to get rid of PRI, and get new honest people that talk with the truth. The campaign of Fox had an incredible strategy to win votes, he told Mexicans that they had the power that was taken away from them by the corrupt government. Like Bush, he assured his victory by using the famous saying: “Ya ganamos”. Plus, Fox used a “V” symbol to indicate their victory. Fox invited every Mexican to use his individual power to get rid of corruption, bureaucratism and fatalism governments. On the other hand, “Que el poder sirva a la gente” from the PRI candidate Labastida was rejected by Mexicans because government has no real power, the real power resides within the Mexican community, and government has to serve the community.

In conclusion, the actual concept that individuals have towards their government is that it has to serve them, government has to serve the community. The government has to work for the development and organization of the nation. Today, power is supposed to be divided between the members of a community and the government, despite the existent bureaucratism and fatalism ideas. Certainly, the section of the nation-state that has the natural power are the individuals, government only exits to assure this right. When political parties decide to impose their own rules and fight to obtain power, things go wrong. A political party that really wants to win an election has to invite the community to use their power to vote and change the nation’s destiny. So, the strategy of Labastida was wrong, he attributed power to the government, when the government doesn´t have the real power. Maybe, PRI would be still in the government with Labastida at its head if their quote was: “Que el gobierno sirva a la gente”.

Posted by Anfetamina Tóxica on 9.19.2007 at 8:00 p.m. | Permalink