Sheet 1
CHANGES IN THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
The origin of all governments may be traced to individual groups set up to protect territory and govern the communities living therein, so-called night-watch governments. These gradually became responsible for the management of forests and water supplies. Introducing irrigation programs, they produced a steady flow of food for the sustenance of their people.
Later, through conquest, these separate powers were absorbed into one party. This central government set out to strengthen its military and promote industrial development. In modern times, economic systems have evolved in the form of either capitalism or socialism. Be it under the former where there is an ongoing need to solve problems arising from private sector activities or under the latter where economic and social development is under the direct control of government, the scope of government roles has expanded universally.
With industrialization and urbanization, the scale of activities undertaken by the general public and private enterprises extended. To supplement this, greater infrastructure was required in areas such as water supply, electricity, housing and public transportation. The enormous capital that this entailed, meant that no other entity but the government itself could sponsor such development.
Increasing public demand for economic and social rights led governments to take responsibility for providing social security, social welfare, public health care, and education services. The pace of economic development resulted in a rapid expansion in the breadth and scale of government programs in these fields. Government activities have become increasingly more closely related to people's lives and as such, are often referred to as the welfare state.
Government activities, in contrast with those of the private sector, can be classified into the four groups outlined as follows.
(1) Duties which no private entity can or should perform.
ex. Diplomacy, police, fire fighting, disaster prevention, constructing infrastructure such as ports and roads.
(2) Duties which promote private sector activities.
ex. Donating subsidies to private programs.
(3) Duties which control private sector activities.
ex. Providing licenses to permit certain activities in the private sector, introducing protective measures in the fields of environment and labor.
(4) Duties which supplement private sector activities.
ex. Public education, hospital & welfare facilities and the post office savings service.
Recently, in response to the accumulative rise in capital of the private sector, the downward turn in economic development and the global financial crisis, many governments have been forced to reassess their role. It has been argued that the public sector should detach itself from private sector activities and concentrate mainly on the duties mentioned in (1) above. Governments should perhaps limit their involvement to supervising certain activities so as to prevent private enterprises from committing offense to society. They should also provide victims with compensation.
