After some 6,000 years of various types of government in different circumstances and locations, it still seems that, despite the vast knowledge that empowers us human-beings, we are still unable to answer the basic question: What is the primary purpose of the government? .
There is a general tendency to take current practice as the basis for our definition of the proper function of government and thus the production of near endless lists such as: .
Defence, Health services, Transport, Welfare, education, Product specifications, import-export controls, international tax treaties, censorship. The list goes on .
Another more viable approach is to go back to some arbitrarily chosen historical period and list what one or another of the then governments did and, after weeding out actions which have no modern equivalence or relevance, to treat those as fundamental. This tends to produce a shorter and more concise list, but suffers from the strange assumption that a past age had enlightened the workings of modern governments even though such governments were often cruel, violent and self-serving, as what sociologists meant by "Authoritarian rule".
Role of Government .
However, in a more modern context, the role of government in society is influenced by what people think government should do, as well as by what firms cannot and will not do. As globalization shapes the workings of advanced modern societies, it becomes increasingly important to understand the efficient allocation of resources in deciding what is and should be produced. The government acts as the central mechanism in providing goods and services and in return extracts the necessary resources from citizens in the form of taxes and allocates those resources to repeat the reproduction cycle.
However, the survival of any nation lies on its ability to defend her people against other nations. The providence of national defense in the form of an army, navy, air force, coast guard, and other associated services thus lies on the government.
