Why is Government so Important?

We can go in two directions when trying to answer this question. It is possible to explain why government is important by touching the high spots, not focusing on a particular level of government. We could also look at the individual levels – city, county, state and federal, addressing the importance of each in great detail. A general description of what government is and what it does will have to suffice for now. A detailed look at the separate levels and their specific tasks would take pages of explanation.

The basic question when trying to determine if government is important and why it is important might be: Can large groups of people really live and work together without some oversight, some form of government? We might also ask if it’s possible for people to gather, make decisions and get “things” done without some sort of leadership.
Sociologists and political scientists ask whether human beings would be able to exist without the guidance of a government structure. Would the many different ideas and opinions of a population lead to chaos without some sort of majority rule to provide direction? These same social scientists emphasize that people, in general, would not be able to live without government because there will always be a small percentage of the population causing problems that only a central government can take care of.

Government is really a matter of representation, after all. All populations live under some sort of leadership that enforces laws and provides guidance. Large numbers of people trying to share living space and resources would find themselves in opposition over a number of questions if elected or appointed leaders weren’t there to make decisions and settle the differences.

In an ideal situation, the size of the “community” would be small enough for the entire population to gather, discuss and decide. This may have been possible centuries ago when only a few families made up the entire population. But when the number of people rises to a certain level, debates, discussions and decisions cannot be made efficiently without representative leadership. At least this is the theory behind all types of representative government.

There are two basic ways to look at the concept of government importance, again without going into details at a certain level. One theory states that the selfish few make central-government laws and regulations necessary. Another theory puts emphasis on pooling resources and providing equally for the entire population. Both of these concepts go a long way toward explaining why government is important.

Some studies have made a short list of reasons why human beings must be controlled by some form of government. The list includes dealing with the selfishness already mentioned; providing for efficient interaction for both groups and individuals; maintaining basic rights that are applied equally.

In essence, the task of government comes down to distributing limited resources such as living space, public roads, public water supply and so on. Without some central control the aggressive and strong would control those resources and keep them from the majority. Even the most autocratic government makes provision for the general population.