What is the proper role of government? It’s a question we often hear people ask, especially in 2020. Not only do we have an election, but with a global pandemic affecting our every-day lives, we are seeing many in government trying to step up to battle the pandemic. In many minds, these efforts overstep their proper role; yet in other minds, it doesn’t go far enough.
I do not believe the government is the “be-all, end-all” in our lives. Far from it. When the government oversteps its bounds, it is the right–nay, responsibility–for the people to assert their rights.
From the previous discussion on natural rights, we determined, “the government’s role is not to instill or deplete…rights, but to maintain them for every individual.” In fact, you will recall that the government does not create these rights.
Thomas Jefferson wrote: “Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?”
In further confirmation of Jefferson’s statement, former Secretary of Agriculture under President Dwight Eisenhower, and Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Ezra Taft Benson stated, “Governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man; and…he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society.”
Once we understand that we are granted specific rights, not by government, but by God, the next few questions to be answered are, “Why do we need a government?”, “What is the government supposed to do?”, and “What should the government not do?”
Why Do We Need a Government?
The French political economist, Frederick Bastiat, wrote, “Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”
In other words, laws are instituted by government to ensure our life, liberty and property are free from tyranny.
Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau further theorized that the state derives its powers from the consent of the governed. This is the main premise behind the Social Contract theory of government: The state exists because it ensures security, peace, economic development, and the resolution of conflict. It also means that individuals simultaneously give up some liberties for the function of the state. Outside of these functions, however, the state has no authority.
What Should the Government Do?
In his seminal work on government, English philosopher John Locke wrote, “The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law there is no freedom. For liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others, which cannot be where there is no law.”
Further, in his remarks on the Proper Role of Government, Benson continues, “It is generally agreed that the most important single function of government is to secure the rights and freedoms of individual citizens.”
Essentially, Benson, Locke, Bastiat, and Rousseau define government’s role solely as protecting the liberties of the people. In doing so, it creates law to ensure that liberty, life and property are available to all.
What should the government not do?
But governments can become too zealous in their desire and function to protect availability of these God-given rights. In doing so, they overstep their bounds by not only guaranteeing availability of these rights, but also forcing other “rights” upon the populace. (Refer back to my discussion on rights v. privileges for a deeper dive.)
In order to guarantee more “rights” upon the people, governments must often take from some to give to another. This enters the communist realm of government where ownership becomes the right of the whole. But as Benson properly points out, “[A government] cannot claim the power to redistribute the wealth or force reluctant citizens to perform acts of charity against their will.”
To do so strips the populace of liberty and property; two rights that are not under the government’s authority to take.
Does that mean, however, that all taxes are theft? No. Taxes are the contract we enter into as a society to allow the government to do collectively that which we cannot do individually. We listed those above as ensuring security, peace, economic development and resolution of conflict among various parties. But we could also add building and maintaining roads and other infrastructure; building and maintaining public schools and providing quality education to our children; and providing utilities like water, power, gas and sewer systems to our homes and businesses. This is a gray area of government. On the far right, the libertarian argument is to keep the government out; while on the far left, the socialist argument is to let the government decide and provide these and many, many more “public goods.”
There is a balance, however. The interesting thought about conservatism is that it allows some investment in government assets (roads, schools, utilities, etc.) to the extent that it:
- Increases the ability of its peoples to exercise their fundamental rights, and
- Is not intended to guarantee success.
Conservatives demand that society allow for both success and failure as features of society. Thus, there is an automatic tension with regards to “equality” arguments. Conservatives want people and businesses to succeed, but not because the government mandates that success. They want the market to be the driving force in that success.
There’s also the human relations aspect that forms the fabric of society. We can’t rely on the government to do everything to keep our society functioning. We need each other as much as, if not much more than we need the government. We can step up to help each other in ways the government probably shouldn’t. For example, religious and other charitable organizations step in to help the needy in our society with food, clothing, life skills training, and sometimes shelter. We have a community around us to help in personal ways that the government can’t possibly understand.
The government is necessary–some would call it a necessary evil. But in the United States, our government system is set up, more or less, to uphold our rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness because the people have required it to. It is, therefore, up to the people to ensure the government stays in its rightful place, and step up to help one another as we navigate our future as a society.