Civil authority or civil government is the practical implementation of a
state
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
on behalf of its citizens, other than through
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...
units (martial law), that enforces
law and order and that is distinguished from religious authority (for example,
canon law
Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...
) and
secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...
authority. The enforcement of law and order is typically the role of the
police
The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...
in modern states.
History
Among the first modern experiments in civil government took place in 1636 when
Roger Williams
Roger Williams (March 1683) was an English-born New England minister, theologian, author, and founder of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Pl ...
, a Christian minister, founded the colony of
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He sought to create a "
wall of separation" between church and state to prevent corruption of the church and maintain civil order as expounded upon in his 1644 book, ''
Bloudy Tenent of Persecution''.
[James Emanuel Ernst, Roger Williams, ''New England Firebrand'' (Macmillan Co., Rhode Island, 1932), pg. 24]
/ref>
Types of authority
Thus four forms of authority may be seen:
*Civil authority
* Military government, Military authority
*Religious authority (certain constitutions exclude the state having any religious authority, separation of church and state
The separation of church and state is a philosophical and Jurisprudence, jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the State (polity), state. Conceptually, the term refers to ...
)
*Corporate authority (such as large business corporations with examples such as the former East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
and Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...
)
It can also mean the moral power of command, supported (when need be) by physical coercion, which the State does not exercise over its members. In this view, because man can not live in isolation without being deprived of what makes him human, and because authority is necessary for a society to hold together, the authority has not only the power but the right to command. It is natural to man to live in society, to submit to authority, and to be governed by that custom of society which crystallizes into law, and the obedience that is required is paid to the powers that be, to the authority in possession. The extent of its authority is bound by the ends it has in view, and the extent to which it provides for the government of society.
In modern states enforcement of law and order is typically the role of the police
The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...
although the line between military and civil units may be hard to distinguish; especially when militia
A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...
s and volunteers, such as yeomanry, act in pursuance of non-military, domestic objectives.
See also
*Civilian control of the military
Civil control of the military is a doctrine in military science, military and political science that places ultimate command responsibility, responsibility for a country's Grand strategy, strategic decision-making in the hands of the state's c ...
*Theocracy
Theocracy is a form of autocracy or oligarchy in which one or more deity, deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries, with executive and legislative power, who manage the government's ...
* Military operations other than war
*Public administration
Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...
* Religious police
References
* {{Catholic Encyclopedia, wstitle=Civil Authority
Religion and government
Government agencies