Final answer:
Societies utilize social control mechanisms like rewards, sanctions, laws, and community oversight to govern behavior and maintain social order. Governments implement these controls formally through laws and military force, while community and religious norms play a significant role in informal social regulation.
Step-by-step explanation:
Most societies use various forms of social control to govern or control behavior. This includes rewards, sanctions, punishments, and the establishment of norms and laws. For example, someone who helps an elderly person may receive praise as a reward encouraging similar future behavior, while a driver speeding might face a fine, to discourage further violations. Social norms and moral expectations are enforced not only through legal mechanisms but also through community oversight, making social approval and disapproval a powerful force.
Governments historically have evolved to enforce social order more formally as societies grew larger and required more regulated forms of control. This includes the use of laws, policing, and even military force, thereby asserting a monopoly on the use of violence to maintain order within state societies. The adherence to religious beliefs and teachings, such as the Ten Commandments, historically played a significant role in social control as well, underscoring moral behaviors and promising supernatural consequences for non-adherence.
Democracies are seen by many as the most just and stable form of government, balancing governmental control and individual freedoms. However, all forms of government share the common trait of exercising power and authority to maintain social order and facilitate a functioning society.