The Purposes of Government Chapter 1 Section 1: The Purposes of Government

What is Government?: Some people complain that we have too much government, but also don’t know how much they count on government in their daily lives. National Defense, law & order, and clean water are just a few examples of services that people use. Before examining the workings of government, we must first understand a few major political ideas. First of all, what IS government? It’s made up of formal institutions and processes through which decisions are made for a group of people. It consists of 3 main components: people, powers, and policies. People: elected officials who have authority and control over others as well as public servants who carry out day to day business of government. (postal workers, presidents, military, judges, and legislators all make up government) Power: the gov’s authority and ability to get things done. People in gov. exercise 3 basic types of power, legislative power to make laws, executive power to carry out and enforce laws, and judicial power to interpret laws and settle disputes. Policy: Any decision made by government in pursuit of a particular goal. This can be a law, gov. program, or actions. (taxation, defense, environmental protections, health care, etc. are examples of policy areas of concern for the government)

Characteristics of a state: A state is a political unit with the power to make & enforce laws over a group of people living within a clearly defined territory (Used this way, it does not mean a state as in the state of FL or any of the other 50). Instead it is closer to meaning a country, all that have a population, territory, a government, and sovereignty. Population: People make up a state, and this population can be small or large. Territory: States have clear borders. Throughout history these borders have led to conflicts between states. Government: All states are politically organized. They have governments issuing and enforcing rules for the people living there. These gov. are recognized from within and from outside the country. Sovereignty: This word means having the supreme power to act within its territory and to control external affairs. It includes independence from other states as well as freedom to create a government. This doesn’t mean they are above the law, as many states limit the sovereign power of their governments with restrictions on using that power.

Functions of Government: What role does gov. play in our everyday lives? Ensure National Security: Protect territory and citizens against external threats. Most countries devote a large amount of their resources on this function (The US spent 600 billion in 2007). It’s not only for the military, but also for diplomacy (embassies and treaties). Maintain Order: To protect people and their property, gov. creates laws and a means to enforce those laws. Laws must be clear, with what is unacceptable behavior as well as the consequences. Different societies and cultures have different views on what these are, so they change state to state. Resolve Conflict: Maintaining order is tied to a country’s ability to resolve conflicts. Some do so through intimidation and force, while most rely on politics and the judicial system for a more peaceful resolution. Politics is the process by which gov. makes and carries out decisions. It’s also about debating issues and policies. In democratic societies, groups with different views must work together to compromise with their opponents to make decisions. In this way, the political process resolves conflicts about what gov. should do and what policies it should pursue. Gov. also establishes a system of justice to resolve conflicts in courts.

Functions of Government: Provide Services: Today, residents in most developed nations expect gov. to provide an array of services. This can be building roads and bridges, parks, delivering mail, education, and much more. The people of our country pay taxes to provide funding for these services. Some services in our country (water, roads, parks) are public goods and cannot be denied to anyone for any reason. Others, such as medical care, high school, and public housing can be denied under specific situations. Provide for the Public Good: In the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution it lays out that one of its goals was to “provide for the general welfare.” General welfare can also be called the public good (the needs and interests of the people as a whole. This can mean many different things, and leads to tough choices that often don’t benefit people equally. A new road can help everyone, but if a family is displaced because their home had to get moved to build it? Tricky situation. We as a country have conversations about what the public good is, and what people need to help provide it for them. It has led to the creation of agencies that protect our food or air, and changes constantly.

Natural Law and Natural Rights: One theory of rule rests on the idea of natural law, a system of rules derived from the natural world. As a system it is said to provide a just and rational order to all things in the world, including human behavior. Following this logic, all people, simply by being human have natural rights (human rights) that cannot be taken way. This notion has a long history, all the way back to Greek Philosopher Aristotle, Cicero in Rome, and Medieval Christian thinkers such as Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas argued that since human nature comes from God, natural law too must be divine in origin. In the eyes of natural law, legitimate government does not violate natural law, and if it does, the people have no obligation to follow it.

The Social Contract: In the 1600’s, a number of influential European thinkers contributed to a new theory of rule, Social Contract theory. This holds that people are submitting themselves to the authority of the state, and in return they are provided with protection and support. This theory dates back to English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who argued in his book Leviathan that people originally lived in a “state of nature” without government or laws and enjoyed personal freedom but were constantly at war and selfish. Because the state of nature is so violent, Hobbes reasoned, humans decided to cooperate and form a social contract to create government. Hobbs argued that gov. must have great power to defend itself and compel obedience, and to describe this he used the metaphor of a leviathan (a monstrous and powerful biblical sea creature).

The Social Contract: The state’s power is enormous because it contains all the power given up by the people. In exchange, the people gain peace and security. This, Hobbes asserts, works to everyone’s advantage. English philosopher John Locke also saw gov. as the product of a social contract built on the consent of the governed. He, however, emphasized that the people had natural rights and that government existed to protect those rights (such as life, liberty, and property). He believed that to do so, gov. power had to be limited, or else people would be provided with grounds to rebel. French philosopher Jean-Jacques Roussea introduced a third version that stated that humans live independent lives in the state of nature and were happy and free, but it was the creation of government and society that corrupted the human condition and created inequality.