Authors: Bobbio, Matteucci, Pasquino
Summary: The entry defines the term and considers its historical evolution. Government can be defined as the group of individuals who collectively exercise political power, determining the political course of the society. Today the power of government is institutionalized as and identified with the State, an institutional and ideological framework that dates back to the 16th century.
Government arose in response to two needs: an internal needs to manage communal relations, and an external need to defend the community from other communities. One distinctive characteristic of government is its monopoly of the use of force. The entry sees force and consensus as dialectical factors that jointly shape and delimit a government. Finally, the entry suggests that in its contemporary usage, the term tends to connote the institutions of executive power.