What should be the functions of government?

(Image credit: Andy Feliciotti, Unsplash)

“Political power, then, I take to be a right of making laws, with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community in the execution of such laws, and in the defence of the commonwealth from foreign injury, and all this only for the public good.”

–       John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, §3

Today, I will ask the question: What functions ought government to perform? And I will aim to answer this in a Lockean manner.

I shall begin with the paragraph at the head of this essay, the first substantive statement in John Locke’s Second Treatise. I shall fill out the picture with more of his ideas. And at the end, I shall list the core functions of government, as they ought to be in a system based on Locke’s political ideas.

Laws

According to Locke, a government has a right to make laws. But not just any old laws. They must not be “the fancies and intricate contrivances of men.” They must not represent “contrary and hidden interests put into words.”

Instead, “the end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.” “Laws ought to be designed for no other end ultimately than the good of the people.” And laws are “only so far right as they are founded on the law of Nature.”

That means, in my terms, that laws must defend the freedoms of the governed, never destroy or damage those freedoms. They must always aim at the good of the people; that is, the good of every human being worth the name among them. And these laws may only interpret or explicate the natural law of humanity. Which, in Locke’s paraphrase, is: “being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.” Laws must not contradict this natural law, violate it, or push beyond its bounds.

Such laws, if properly conceived, justly designed, fully debated and consented to by the people, can provide one of the things, which Locke identifies as missing if there is no government. That is, “an established, settled, known law, received and allowed by common consent to be the standard of right and wrong, and the common measure to decide all controversies between them.”

Penalties and reparations

In Locke’s view, government laws can carry penalties if broken, up to and including death. This may seem over the top for laws “for the regulating and preserving of property.” But Locke saw the individual human being as “proprietor of his own person.” Thus, attacks against the person, including lethal violence, he saw as also attacks on that person’s property. Indeed, he used the word “property” as a general word for “their lives, liberties and estates.”

Locke also countenanced civil-law compensation, in addition to criminal-law penalties. “Besides the crime which consists in violating the laws, and varying from the right rule of reason … there is commonly injury done; in which case, he who hath received any damage has … a particular right to seek reparation from him that hath done it.”

Enforcement and defence

Government has a right of “employing the force of the community in the execution of such laws.” That is, requiring those who subscribe to the political society either to be part of, or to pay for, a force to restrain and, where appropriate, to punish those that break such laws. This would correspond, in modern terms, to a police force, together with the right to make a citizen’s arrest.

Government may also use that force “in the defence of the commonwealth from foreign injury.” As above, I see this as levying an obligation either to be part of, or to pay for, a force to be used for military defence against aggressions by political states.

Judges and punishments

Locke gives his view of the functions of government in a short chapter beginning at §123. While not explicitly named in the quote at the head of this essay, one of the functions listed there is “a known and indifferent [impartial] judge, with authority to determine all differences according to the established law.” In today’s terms, this means courts of justice, which can arbitrate disputes, and try those accused of crimes. This is another of the things Locke saw as missing if there is no government.

Another function listed is “power to back and support the sentence when right, and to give it due execution.” This corresponds, in today’s terms, to the services, such as prisons, which support the courts of justice.

Justice

Locke says remarkably little in his Two Treatises about justice, or what it actually is. He does say: “Justice gives every man a title to the product of his honest industry, and the fair acquisitions of his ancestors descended to him.”

But for the most part, he delegates the job to Richard Hooker, a cleric of a century before. Who says: “If I do harm, I must look to suffer, there being no reason that others should show greater measure of love to me than they have by me showed unto them; my desire, therefore, to be loved of my equals in Nature, as much as possible may be, imposes on me a natural duty of bearing toward them fully the like affection.” So, Hooker’s, and thus Locke’s, conception of justice is not so far away from my “condition in which each individual is to be treated, over the long run, in the round and as far as practicable, as he or she treats others.”

Paying for government

“It is true,” says Locke, “governments cannot be supported without great charge, and it is fit everyone who enjoys his share of the protection should pay out of his estate his proportion for the maintenance of it.”

I read this as meaning that each individual should pay, for any period in which government defends his assets, in proportion to the benefit he receives from that protection. And I read “out of his estate his proportion” as saying that how much he is expected to pay should be in direct proportion to his total wealth. This seems fair to me, as I would expect the cost of defending anyone’s life and wealth to be in close proportion to the amount of that wealth.

Further, government “must not raise taxes on the property of the people without the consent of the people given by themselves or their deputies.” But the deputies or “representatives” themselves are bound to act in the interests of the people. “For all power given with trust for attaining an end being limited by that end, whenever that end is manifestly neglected or opposed, the trust must necessarily be forfeited, and the power devolve into the hands of those who gave it.” That means that if our supposed “representatives” agree to taxes that go against, or are used for purposes that go against, the good of the people, they have forfeited our trust, and may no longer act, or claim to act, on our behalf.

The public good

“All this,” says Locke, must be “only for the public good.” He defines this in the First Treatise as “the good of every particular member of that society, as far as by common rules it can be provided for.”

Later, he puts his case more strongly. “The power of the society or legislative constituted by them can never be supposed to extend farther than the common good, but is obliged to secure every one’s property by providing against those three defects above mentioned that made the state of Nature so unsafe and uneasy. And so, whoever has the legislative or supreme power of any commonwealth, is bound to govern by established standing laws, promulgated and known to the people, and not by extemporary decrees; by indifferent [impartial] judges, who are to decide controversies by those laws; and to employ the force of the community at home, or abroad to prevent or redress foreign injuries and secure the community from inroads and invasion. And all this to be directed to no other end but the peace, safety and public good of the people.”

I interpret all this as meaning that if someone keeps to the natural law of humanity – “no-one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions” – then government must never harm him in any of those ways. Nor may it do anything outside its remit of securing everyone’s life, health, liberty and possessions. Nor may it judge any case in any way that is not totally unbiased, objective and honest. Nor may it use force outside its bounds, except in defence or retaliation.

No transfer of power

Locke writes: “The legislative cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands, for it being but a delegated power from the people, they who have it cannot pass it over to others.” Thus, this power always rests ultimately with the people, and cannot be transferred, either explicitly or implicitly, to any external organization such as the EU or UN.

To sum up Locke’s view

1)     Government can make laws. But these laws must always aim at the good of the people. And when put into effect, they must defend the lives, liberties and possessions of the governed, never destroy or damage them.

2)     Government laws may only interpret or explicate the natural law of humanity, which forbids everyone to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions. They must never contradict it, violate it, or go into areas beyond its bounds.

3)     Government laws can carry penalties if broken.

4)     Government can order reparations for harms done.

5)     Government can use force to restrain and, where appropriate, to punish those that break laws, or fail to pay reparations that it has ordered. Individuals can assist if they are so minded.

6)     Government and individuals can use force to defend or retaliate against military attack.

7)     Payment for government should be in proportion to the wealth of an individual’s estate. No other taxes may be levied without the consent of the governed.

8)     Everything government does must be for the public good. That is, the good of every individual among the governed, as far as it can be achieved by making and enforcing laws common to all.

9)     Government power rests ultimately with the people, and cannot be transferred to external parties.

The core functions of government

Here are the functions of government, as foreseen in John Locke’s political philosophy, but brought up to date in terms of institutions of government today.

1)     A legislative, whose powers are circumscribed by the limitations I set out above.

2)     A police force or equivalent.

3)     A defensive and retaliatory military.

4)     Impartial, objective and honest courts of justice, covering compensatory and penal law.

5)     The support services associated with the courts of justice.

To which, for practical reasons, there should be added:

6)     A quality control system, to ensure that government always acts for the public good.

7)     A fair and just system of financing the other government functions, in which the core payment is in proportion to total wealth, and there are no further taxes without consent.

And that’s it!