People, Politics, and Policy

Nature of man

The nature of man refers to the characteristics that differentiate man from other creatures. These distinguishing features include man’s way of thinking, feeling and they way they act in different situations. These characteristics are independent and do not depend on the interaction and socialization with people or the influence of culture. All these characteristics are believed to be caused by certain things, which are difficult to answer. The human nature poses a many questions that need to be answered and this forms a major part of ethics, politics and the study of God. This is because human nature influences a person’s way of thinking and behaving hence shapes the behavior of the whole society. The human nature is the major source of the norms in the society and this influences the conduct of a person depending on his or her nature. There are three different positions of explaining the nature of man and they are trichotomy dichotomy and psychosomatic Unity.

Trichotomy states that a persons’ constitution contains three parts, which are the body, the soul and the spirit. The body is termed as the external component of man. The soul, on the other hand, is the part of man’s nature that presents life and the will to live. This is also the animal matter in man, which can arise when the spirit part is not in action. The spirit component s the role of Good in the man’s life and the consciousness he feels whenever he is doing any action. However, the fall of man as stated in the bible led to the loss of the spirit component of the nature of man.

Dichotomy positions that the constitution of man is in two separate components, the two components are the body and the soul. This position does not believe that the spirit and the soul are two different components. Psychosomatic Unity is the third position and it holds that the human nature is in one joint constitution, which shapes the nature of man. All the components of the human body namely body and soul are intertwined and both of them have a key role in shaping man’s nature. Living a live full of purpose means that the human being is responsible for his actions. This includes being accountable and having a conscience in whatever act he or she is doing.

Governing institutions

The governing institutions are made up of the executive, the judiciary and the legislature. These form the branches of any government, and are vital for the smooth functioning of political institutions and making it easy for the people to understand how the country is governed. Modernized states contain written constitutions that describe how the formal powers in the government are divided and how each of the branches of the government functions. The executive and the legislative branches include the political figures like the parliamentarians, the senate, the president, the vice president and the ministers. This is common in countries that embrace democracy where the people have a say in their form of governorship.

 The different types of democracies define how well the people in the country are represented by the elected leaders. The executive branch of the government is beauractratic in nature with most of its officials being appointed by their merit and the level of expertise the show in dealing with issues concerning the people. The people serving in the executive should be fair and treat people equally when implementing laws and policies. However, these people do not always work with these principles because of the corrupt system of governance and political greed. There are different types of democracies including the majoritarian and the comparative democracies. The judiciary, on the other hand, enforces and interprets the laws formulated and passed by the legislature and the executive branches.

Roles of the government

The most common form of governance is democracy where people get to elect their leaders. The roles of government differ according to the type of governance each state adopts. The roles of the governments keep changing with time due to the changes in technology, and the forms of governance used in the country. In the past the roles of the rulers was to offer protection to their citizens and make sure that their lands were safe from other communities. The passing time made the whole role of governorship a complicated role that became difficult as time progressed. The first role of the government is the military duty, which entails protecting the people from external aggression. This role has always been the key role of al the traditional rulers and it has been maintained to keep the country and its citizens safe. The military duties have increased since the olden days and it now composes of external affairs, creation of arms and forming of alliances. This is an important role as it defines integrity and civilization within the country and helps the country to develop economically and socially. The other role of the government is civic amenities role, which involves distribution of civic amenities to the human habitation in regions that need basic social amenities like sanitation, good and safe environment that is hygienic and conducive for human habitat. Provision of education is another important role that the government plays.

The government needs to ensure that all the people have access to all levels of education from kindergarten level to the highest institutions of learning. This will give the society a chance to gain knowledge hence making them rational and rich intellectually. Judicial function or judicial administration entails maintaining law and order in the country by using written or unwritten laws. People have unspoken rules such as standing in a queue when waiting to board a bus. The importance of this role is that it helps the society to run smoothly as it prevents mayhems in the day-to-day interactions. The government ensures that this role functions ell with the help of the judiciary and the internal security organs, which help in maintaining law and order. The economy of a state is very important in making sure that the citizens get sufficient income to enable them to access basic needs. The government ensures this by increasing the economic growth of the country through increased volumes of economic activities, and formulations of laws that make the market friendly for investors. The economic role also involves developing the countries infrastructure to aid the economic activities.

Public Policies

The public policy that I would choose is the distributive policy, which involves the allocation of resources in a discrete and tangible way. This form of public policy is created by government regimes and political incentives, which politicians in opposition side take advantage of to develop their self interest. Although the members of parliament to benefit their constituencies generally abuse this policy, it can be used in the right manner to help those who do not have sufficient resources in the constituencies. The regimes of the distributive public policies are in two variables namely the type of goods that the person is distributing, and this public policy can focus on either public or particular goods. The other form of distributor policy is the type of policy making that depends on whether the focus is on programmes or in the discretion form of distribution.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)

This act is commonly referred to as Obama care the federal health care law. President Barrack Obama signed the law in March 23^rd 2010. It was a federal statute that became a law after its signing by the president. The main aim of this law is to reduce the number of people that do not have insurance policies, and reducing the cost of healthcare in the state. The PPACA provides a significant boost in the American health care system in conjunction with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act. The act has a number of mandates that seeks to help the citizens to access quality healthcare. It provides financial backing and tax credit to employers in an effort to increase the rate of coverage among the employed and the unemployed citizens. The act also advocates improved health care delivery and improved health care result. The act also demands that insurers should use an equitable system in covering the patient’s medical bills not putting into account the previous agreements or the gender of the patient.

Tragedy of the Commons

This concept forms a major part in the effort to understand the environmental degradation experienced in the world. Garrett Hardin in the year 1968 first expressed this concept in his article, which contributed to ecology and population theories. The concept states that resources would be destroyed if all people held them in common use.  The solution to this pending problem that human beings should change their perspectives about the environment and change the human principles and the thoughts they have on morality. One individual or the community at large uses the term ‘held in common’ to define resources that are not owned. The people who have access to the resources should be limited and the term ultimately is used to define the time that the resources are available. The accessibility of the resources also determines the speed with which the resource will get destroyed. There are laws that seek to ensure that people have access to resources and the law of nature states that mankind should have access to the air and water. This means that there are some resources that man should access no matter their state as long as he or she respects the environment.

The other law is that all rivers and ports are public facilities; therefore, no one should be denied the chance to go fishing in any of these resources. The general statement of the tragedy of the commons is that the earth is finite because it contains very many resources hat can be renewed. These resources include minerals, fuel, energy obtained from the sun and energy from decaying living things. The global scale system shows that in the recent years man has been exploiting resources in a higher rate than what the bio system can sustain. This is the cause of the environmental hazards witnessed in the recent past. The tragedy of the commons is not something that can be avoided, and the only way to solve this tragedy is by using environmental friendly ways to solve the issue. The people need to change their values and their views on how to use resources.