Government Branches

The Executive branch is comprised of the President and the Vice President who are chosen by direct popular vote and fulfill a term of six years.

The Constitution grants the President authority to appoint his Cabinet. These departments form a large portion of the country’s bureaucracy.

The Legislative branch can make laws, alter, and reverse them through the power bestowed in the Philippine Congress. This institution is divided into the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Judicial branch maintains the power to resolve disputes concerning rights that are legally demandable and enforceable. This branch decides whether there has been a serious abuse of judgment amounting to lack or excess of authority on the part and instrumentality of the government. It is made up of a Supreme Court and lower courts.

Types of Authority

Power is the capacity to realize desired ends despite opposition from others. The utilization of power is the business of government, which is defined as a formal organization that directs the political life of a society (Macionis, 2012). Therefore, governments demand compliance on the part of a population.

• Traditional Authority: Respect for a long-standing cultural pattern is used to legitimize power.
• Rational-Legal Authority (Bureaucratic Authority): Legally created rules and regulations are used to legitimize power.
• Charismatic Authority: Extraordinary personal skills that inspire devotion and obedience are used to legitimize power.

Forms of Redistribution and Exchange of Products

1. RECIPROCITY

   • Generalized Reciprocity: Transaction between two socially equal parties having the same status with regards to values of goods or services.
   • Balanced Reciprocity: The giver is expected to gain something in return although it does not have to be given instantly.
   • Negative Reciprocity: This transaction is practiced using deceiving ways to gain profit.

2. REDISTRIBUTION

   The process by which products produced out from the community is sent to a place where they are stored, counted, and later distributed back to the people.

   It is usually the leader of the community who oversees the process. The central authority uses the distribution of goods and services to generate interdependence between the parties involved.

   Examples include taxes collected and redistributed through government programs, and charitable donations.

3. MARKET EXCHANGE

   The price of the transactions of deliverables and services are supposedly governed by the rules of supply and demand.

   A transaction that uses money in exchange for goods or services.