Purpose of Government

With man's rights being individualistic under the Objectivism philosophy, where does that leave the government? A government, no matter if it is a dictatorship or a democracy, is needed to maintain order between people. Under Objectivism, the government is controlled in order to serve three major roles in society: police, military, and judiciary.

The government will have a monopoly on force, which means that it is the only authority able to carry out punishments onto men for violating the rights of other men. This should not be confused with self-defense, which is a moral action a person can take against a criminal who threatens the innocent individual's life, because the government can not be everywhere at the same time. But beyond self-defense, the government would be the only body to sentence men for willfully ignoring the laws of society.

The government protects it's citizens from criminals through the police. Through the military, the government protects the citizens from foreign invaders. The government's power of police and military would be controlled, via a constitution at the national level, and appropriate laws at the state and local level. The only moral use of police and the military will then be in defense of the innocent.

This leaves the judiciary to carry out several roles: Prosecute criminals, Arbitrator of disputes, and Interpret laws. Courts do this similarly today, and their roles would change little overall. The courts are a necessary function of government. Without a neutral group in society to handle contractual disagreements, men would be left to take the situation into their own hands, which would in turn violate the rights of each party as each attempts to take what's their “due” with no one to stop them, which is also why a police force is needed, in order to prevent this from occurring in the first place.....Read the rest of this post here or visit http://www.objectivistblogger.com.