Philosophical Views on the Role of Government
Any number of philosophers, modern and ancient alike, have offered an examination on the role that government should play in social intercourse. In this essay, the views of several such thinkers will be examined. The philosophers to be discussed are Edmund Burke, Jeremy Bentham, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Karl Marx.
Edmund Burke (5), writing about the French Revolution, made reference to the role of government in his native England, noting that the English people had via their own Glorious Revolution acquired specific rights, to with: the right to choose their own governors, the right to cashier them for misconduct, and the right to frame a government for themselves. This bill of rights established, in his view, government as very much the servant of the people. The role to be played by government in a society driven by individual rights was a protective one designed to ensure that no monarch, however constitutionally established, would act to usurp the rights of citizens.
BurkeÆs (6) governmental ideal is one characterized by parliamentary representation composed of two Houses û one of Lords and one of Commons, with the latter placed in office by the electorate. Such a government undertakes, in his view, to ensure that laws are made and enforced which work to better the condition of all members of society. Government therefore has a legal and normative mission and function and is legitimized by the consent of the governed.
For Burke (5), the ôrevolutionary societyö that led the way to revolution (and anarchy) in France was not legitimate in that it did not govern with the goals of justice and equality in mind as Burke understood those goals in the context of England. Participation of the people was an essential qualification for a legitimate government in his view. Such a government may not, as in BenthamÆs case, have oriented itself toward maximization of hap...