There are many views on the purpose of government.
freedom: Many governments claim that their basic purpose (or a basic purpose) is to protect the rights and freedom of their citizens.
defense: Almost all governments have some form of military, charged with the responsibility for defending the nation against outside aggression. The military sometimes takes control of the government (called a military coup). The military sometimes (especially in a military dictatorship) acts as an internal police force. Followers of Ayn Rand’s Objectivism claim that the police and the military are the only legitimate purposes for government.
Aggressive neighbors are one of the five basic causes of civilizations having collapsed.
crime: Almost all governments have some form of police, charged with the responsibility for preventing crime, investigating crime, and capturing criminals. The police often provide additional emergency services. Followers of Ayn Rand’s Objectivism claim that the police and the military are the only legitimate purposes for government.
“My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” —Ayn Rand
courts: Almost all governments have some form of courts. Two basic kinds of courts are criminal courts, charged with trying those who are accussed of a crime and sentencing those who are found guilty of having committed a crime, and civil courts, charged with settling disputes.
emergency services: Almost all governments have some form of emergency services and disaster relief.
Natural disasters are one of the five basic causes of civilizations having collapsed.
environmental protection: Many governments have some form of environmental protection. Some conservatives believe that environmental protection interferes with the rights of the wealthy. Some fundamentalist Christians believe that humans have a responsibility to use up all of the world’s natural resources before the rreturn of their mythological Jesus.
Destruction of the environmennt is one of the five basic causes of civilizations having collapsed.
trade: Almost all governments enter into trade agreements with other governments.
Sudden loss of trade is one of the five basic causes of civilizations having collapsed.
industry and agriculture: Almost all governments have some regulation of industry and agriculture. Some governments run nationalized businesses on behalf of the people..
Failure of industry and/or agriculture is one of the five basic causes of civilizations having collapsed.
infrastructure: Almost all governments provide for the construction and maintenance of basic infrastructure. This can be directly, through government agencies, or indirectly, through regulated industries. Infrastructure includes: fresh water, sewage disposal and treattment, roads, bridges, tunnels, waterways, air transport, mass trannsport, electricity and power, communications networks, and data networks.
education: Almost all governments provide for the education of citizens.
social programs: Almost all governments provide at least some form of social welfare programs, designed to help the members of society who are weakest and most vulnerable.
“Government exists at most to protect people’s rights, and should neither provide for people nor punish them for activities that interfere with no one else.” —Free State Project
“America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact — the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality.” —Adlai Stevenson
[Constitution of the Nation of Pacifica, Preamble:] We the People of the Nation of Pacifica, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, protect the environment, encourage trade, industry, and agriculture, construct and maintain infrastructure, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty, equality, community, and civilization to ourselves and our posterity, resolved to serve world peace as an equal partner in the global human community, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Nation of Pacifica.
[Constitution of the United States, Preamble:] We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
[Basic Law [Constitution] for the Federal Republic of Germany, Article I:] Conscious of their responsibility before God and Men, Animated by the resolve to serve world peace as an equal partner in a united Europe, the German people have adopted, by virtue of their constituent power, this Basic Law.
The Germans in the Länder of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North-Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia have achieved the unity and freedom of Germany in free self-determination. This Basic Law is thus valid for the entire German People.
[Constitution of the Republic of France, Preamble:] The French people solemnly proclaim their attachment to the Rights of Man and the principles of national sovereignty as defined by the Declaration of 1789, confirmed and complemented by the Preamble to the Constitution of 1946.
By virtue of these principles and that of the self-determination of peoples, the Republic offers to the overseas territories that express the will to adhere to them new institutions founded on the common ideal of liberty, equality and fraternity and conceived with a view to their democratic development.
