On Government

Given the current political climate, this post is exceedingly relevant. I will lay a foundation for the most basic of government responsibilities. This exploration deals purely in the most generic of societies.


Necessary for a government to exist, there must exist a society for it to govern. The most basic unit of a society is the family: two or more generations of the same genealogy living together. In the beginning of human history, a family would have shared their meals, their beds, and their homes. Each member of the family would have one or more responsibilities that contributed to the survival of the family unit as a whole. We can reasonably expect that the mother or father of the oldest generation of the family would have served as the leader in making family decisions and as arbiter in the case of dispute. It should be intuitive that any interaction between multiple individuals will result in conflict because not all people hold the same desires and expectations. As families combined and grew, these conflicts would grow as well. With a large enough network of families, the patriarch/matriarch would require assistant in enforcing their leadership and resolving dispute. We will call this amalgamation of families "society" and its leaders "government." Regardless of the size or advancement of the society, the government made their decisions (hopefully) with the aim of furthering the success of the family, which, by definition, requires the protection of the family. The government must ensure protection from external threats (e.g. rival clans), internal threats (e.g. violent conflict within the society), and natural threats (e.g. weather, scarcity, disease).With these most basic definitions, I assert that the basest responsibility of government is the protection of society.

Raising a military
The most obvious threat for an early society would be external. Sources of water and food bring many societies in close proximity to each other. As individual societies grow, these sources become scarcer. They are forced to either find more elsewhere or remove others who are taking from available supply. In order to defend themselves, they would need protectors of the group, most likely the strong males. More defenders (or warriors) gives them more strength, thus providing the impetus for a growing society.

Legislative and judicial duties
As the society grows, the internal threats grow. The number of conflicts increase, and the number of people who are predisposed to violence grows. Also, at a certain point, anonymity encourages people to act less favorably toward those within the society they do not personally know. All these factors cause a need for the government to provide a set of rules by which the people in society will interact with each other. With time, the rulebook must grow to cover the increasingly creative ways people harm others within the society. When rules are broken or harm is done, those responsible are expected to face punishment. Within a family, the parents most likely act as arbiters of the infraction and decide on compensation. With a society too large for one person to monitor, the government must enlist the help of citizens to help observe and protect (e.g. police) as well as determine compensation when police cannot stop an infraction (e.g. judges & jury). Regardless of the consent of the people, government must provide these things for the protection of society from itself.

Medical responsibilities
In the days before the knowledge of microscopic organisms, medicinal care was generally ineffective. However, the disease and injury still threatened society as whole, taking individuals out of the social structure that required their support. Most importantly in smaller societies that depend heavily upon the work of each individual, a government that desires the survival of its society will enlist the help of medical specialists to help care for the sick and injured in order to return them to a productive state of health quickly. Although it is often an overlooked threat to society, it troubles large and small societies alike.

What does this mean for modern government? It means that all governments should provide at least these three protections: a military to protect against external threats, judicial and law enforcement organizations to protect against internal threats, and a medical organization to respond to environmental threats. I will rant later about the current debate on health care reform, but this lays the groundwork for what a government should do for the society that it leads.