Government Responsibility to Citizens

The oldest and simplest justification for government is protection. Government exists first to protect citizens from violence.

Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan describes a world of unrelenting insecurity without government, where no authority exists to maintain law and order or protect citizens from one another and from foreign enemies. The dangers of weak or nonexistent government are visible today in many fragile states and ungoverned regions around the world. In such conditions, when chaos becomes severe enough, people will sometimes accept even harsh or fanatical regimes such as the Taliban or ISIS simply because they impose some form of order over the violence of competing factions.

If government is to serve as protector, it must have the means to do so. That requires taxation to fund, train, and equip armies and police forces. It requires courts and prisons to enforce laws, and institutions to create and administer those laws. Protecting citizens from foreign threats also requires the ability to negotiate with other governments and, when necessary, to defend the nation against them.

This minimalist view of government was visible in the early years of the American republic. The federal government consisted of the President, Congress, the Supreme Court, and a small number of departments including Treasury, War, State, and Justice.

Protect and Provide

Protection, however, is only the beginning. A second role of government is that of provider: supplying goods and services that individuals cannot easily provide for themselves.

In this sense, government becomes the solution to collective action problems. It allows citizens to create public goods that benefit everyone but would otherwise suffer from the “free rider” problem if participation were voluntary.

Much of a nation’s economic infrastructure falls into this category. Systems that allow people and goods to move and connect—roads, bridges, ports, and increasingly digital networks such as broadband—serve the entire public.

Private entrepreneurs often build such infrastructure first, hoping to profit through tolls or fees. But the cost of building and maintaining these systems, along with the broad public benefit they provide, often leads governments to take responsibility for them over time.

A broader version of government as provider is the social welfare state. In this model, government helps citizens when they cannot fully provide for themselves, particularly during vulnerable periods such as childhood, old age, illness, disability, or unemployment caused by forces beyond their control.

As the welfare state has evolved, critics have sometimes argued that it shields people from the harsher effects of capitalism, or even serves as a way to protect the wealthy from the political anger of the disadvantaged.

At its best, however, a welfare system functions as an infrastructure of care. Just as economic infrastructure allows markets and competition to flourish, social infrastructure allows citizens to participate fully in society. By providing a basic level of social security, it enables individuals to pursue and create their own economic security.