What is the relationship between the people and the government?

First we need to define "state". Way back when, a state was the body politic, a group of people formed a social compact to promote the common good. All state constitutions mention this in one form or another. Since the state is the people in it, the answer to your first question is the people owe allegiance to the state or to each other.

It's different now. The people have become lazy and not taken care of business. Lawyers have moved in and taken the power away from the people by creating a new State, literally a corporation, which makes its own rules called statutes which are not lawful, but the dumbed down people do not know this. The man who was once sovereign over his own life has become the subject of the State – a slave on the plantation.

At one time the people were the government. Now government has become a not so benevolent dictator. The kicker is that the people must consent to this new rule for it to be effective and they do it every damn day. The God-given rights spoken of in the Declaration of independence cannot be taken away by the State, but they can be given away by the people.

A nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. In one word government is people, or at least what it should be.

1 - Slim to none.

2 - Little to none.

3 - Yes, and a very, very tiny contract at that - no more than one paragraph.

4 - Oh, I'm describing the US already and you know it.

And you have a nice day now, hear? Oh, and don't forget to say "Hi!" to your logic professor; he'll KNOW who it's from! ;-)