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 go

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ere the highest caste is at the same time the priestly caste.ö From the perspective of this philosopher, the notion that mankind can be divided into such groups as ôaristocratsö and ôslavesö suggests that there are basic inequities within most societies that government might need to address. On the Genealogy of Morals by Nietzsche is less about government per se than about society and the origins of morality. Nevertheless, it offers insight into how Nietzsche saw government. Government, in this view, exists to serve the needs of men. While the ôslavesö identified by Nietzsche (4) may be difficult to liberate from their condition, they nevertheless require a government that represents the, Nietzsche (9) stated: ôAssuming as true what in any event is taken as "the truth" nowadays, that it is precisely the purpose of all culture to breed a tame and civilized animal, a domestic pet, out of the beast of prey "man," then we would undoubtedly have to consider the essential instruments of culture all those instinctive reactions and resentments by means of which the noble races with all their ideals were finally disgraced and overpoweredùbut that would not be to claim that the bearers of these instincts also in themselves repres
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Approximate Word count = 1603
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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