PBS KIDS presents The Democracy Project, an online collection that helps kids understand government and how it functions. What is government and what role does it play in our lives? Why do we need government? In its simplest form, a government determines the way in which a country, state, county, township, city, or village is run. At every level, government makes laws that citizens must obey and creates policies about everything connected with the daily life of a community—whether that community is a nation, a state or the town where you live.