للحكومة سلطة.

Because Arabic often uses nominal sentences in the present tense, with no written word for is or has.

So للحكومة سلطة literally works like:

• للحكومة = for/to the government
• سلطة = authority / power

Very literally: For the government, there is authority.

In natural English, this becomes The government has authority or The government has power.

The prefix لِـ usually means to or for.

In this sentence, it helps express possession:

• للحكومة = for the government / belonging to the government
• so the whole sentence means that the government has authority

This is a very common Arabic way to say have when no separate verb to have is used.

Arabic often puts the prepositional phrase first in sentences like this, especially when expressing existence or possession.

So:

• للحكومة سلطة = The government has authority

This order is very natural in Arabic.
It is structurally similar to saying:

• عندي كتاب = I have a book
• literally: At me is a book

Here too:

• للحكومة سلطة = literally For the government is authority

Starting with للحكومة gives the sentence its normal possessive feel.

Because this word is made from two parts:

• لِـ = the preposition for/to
• الحكومة = the government

When they combine:

• لِ + الحكومة
• the hamza of الـ drops in pronunciation after a preceding vowel
• so the result is written للحكومة

So the two lams come from:

1. the lam of the preposition لِـ
2. the lam of the definite article الـ

Because it comes after the preposition لِـ.

Prepositions in Arabic make the following noun genitive (majrūr).

So:

• الحكومةُ = nominative
• الحكومةَ = accusative
• الحكومةِ = genitive

In this sentence, the full form is:

• لِلْحُكُومَةِ

The final kasra is there because لِـ governs the genitive.

Because the sentence is not talking about the authority as a specific known thing. It is saying that the government has some authority / possesses authority.

So:

• سلطة = authority / power in a general or indefinite sense
• السلطة = the authority, a specific authority already identified

In possessive/existential sentences like this, the noun that comes after the prepositional phrase is often indefinite.

So للحكومة سلطة is the natural way to say:

• The government has authority
• The government has power

In traditional Arabic grammar, this is usually analyzed as:

• للحكومة = خبر مقدّم (advanced predicate)
• سلطة = مبتدأ مؤخّر (delayed subject/topic)

So although English speakers may expect سلطة to be “the object” of has, Arabic is not using a verb to have here at all.

Instead, Arabic builds the sentence as a nominal sentence with a prepositional phrase plus a noun.

A simple way to understand it is:

• للحكومة = the government has / for the government
• سلطة = authority

A full pronunciation would be:

• لِلْحُكُومَةِ سُلْطَةٌ
• lil-ḥukūmati sulṭatun

Breakdown:

• لِلْحُكُومَةِ = for the government
• سُلْطَةٌ = authority (nominative indefinite)

In normal pause at the end of the sentence, the final case ending is often not pronounced, so you may hear something closer to:

• lil-ḥukūmati sulṭah

But grammatically, the full ending of سلطة is -un because it is nominative and indefinite.

We know from the sentence structure.

In full case-marked Arabic, it would be:

• سُلْطَةٌ

It is nominative because it functions as the delayed مبتدأ in this nominal sentence.

Arabic writing often leaves short vowels off, so learners have to infer the case from grammar.

So even if you only see سلطة, the grammatical form here is:

• سلطةٌ

Yes, you can say الحكومة لها سلطة.

That also means The government has authority.

The difference is mostly one of style and structure:

• للحكومة سلطة = a compact, formal, very common possessive structure
• الحكومة لها سلطة = more explicit, with لها meaning it has / to it belongs

Both are correct.
The version with للحكومة سلطة sounds especially neat and natural in formal Arabic.

It is possible, but it does not sound as neutral as للحكومة سلطة.

• للحكومة سلطة is the normal way to say The government has authority
• سلطة للحكومة can sound more like Authority belongs to the government or put extra focus on authority

So for a basic possessive meaning, للحكومة سلطة is the safest and most natural choice.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Common translations include:

• authority
• power
• control sometimes, in some contexts

So للحكومة سلطة could mean:

• The government has authority
• The government has power

The exact English choice depends on the surrounding context.