Dr. Mel G.Dr. Mel G.Dr. Mel G. is a fctitious political scientist, a person who studies politics and diferent governments. His name is also an acronym. This acronym is to help explain the function of government. These are only the asics of government, all types of government vary. Dr! Distriute "ewards. Governments can distriute rewards to the pulic. Two examples are! sometimes for catching a criminal# and a $tax deduction$, when you donate money to a non%proft organi&ation. Mel! Ma'e and enforce laws. ( government cannot function without ma'ing any laws. )t cannot function also if it does not have a way of ma'ing its citi&ens oey these laws. (nother name for a law is an ordinance. G! Goals, sets goals. ( government must set goals for the area it governs. )n the *.+. federal government, even within a certain presidential administration there are goals.( presidential candidate will usually set a goal,s- for what he.she will do if elected president. Then when they are elected they will usually set more goals for their term in o/ce. (n example of a presidential goal! )n 0anuary 1221 3resident George 4. 5ushenacted one of his administration6s goals, the $7o 8hild 9eft 5ehind (ct of 122:$. These are the asics of the functions of a government. (s mentioned earlier, each type of government varys in function, so the next thing you should learn are the Diferent Types of Government. The Role of Government In SocietyOne of the most important things that we, as thinking beings, can ask ourselves, is "What is the role of government in society?" But to answer it, we must first define government in a manner that satisfies all of us.The thing that separates a government or law, or the state, depending on the writer !! " am known to use all three# from any other civic or social organi$ation is that goverments may legallyinitiate the use of force. %othing and nobody else may do this. %ot you, not me, not the &lks, not '(, not the )outhern Baptist *onvention, not 'reenpeace, not Trek Bicycles, not +ublic *iti$en,not the ,nited -uto Workers, not your neighborhood block club, not -%.BO/. !! e0cept government. Only government has this power, which is called the police power. -nd politics is nothing more than deciding how this power should be used. That1s why, when *hairman (ao 2edong said, "-ll political power comes from the barrel of a gun," he was not philosophising or speaking in abstract. 3e was stating a basic a0iom.Bear that in mind. -ny time you elect a legislator, mayor, or other government official, you are hiring them to hold and use a gun on the people, including yourself. They may not do so directly,but anyone with the power to pass laws or write regulations has the power to decide when the police should come after you. -nd "you are disobeying a law" is -4W-.) reason enough.&verything that a law demands that you do, or forbids you to do, is at gunpoint, if neccessary !! at the threat of death. +erhaps not for the offense itself, but if you are stubborn enough about not accepting the penalties that government places on you for breaking its laws, you can easily find yourself under the barrel of a policeman1s gun.The defining characteristic of government ") the legal use of force. -nd if the use of force is legal, then it also should be 5ust. %ow, 5ust who is the government? "n un5ust societies, it is whoever has the power to force the others to his will. But in democratic societies, the government is either us or our representatives acting on our behalf."n fact, the reason that mankind ever formed governments in the first place was to protect ourselves from others using force to kill us violating our right to life#, or to make us do their willviolating our right to liberty#, or to take what was ours violating our right to property#. &verybody agrees that when somebody comes to hurt or kill you, or to enslave you, or to rob you, you can defend yourself. 'overnment is the same thing, only in groups. The point of havinga government is to organi$e force for the defense of a group or community be it a neighborhood,a town, a city, a state, or a nation#. -nd the government ") us. )o at what point does it become 5ustice for the government to do by force that which it is un5ust for ,) to do by force?The answer is, "%ever." The role of government is to defend our lives, our liberty, and our property, from those who would violate them, and to punish those who do so by making them pay us restitution. When a government limits itself to this, people are pleased with it, to the very limited e0tent that they have to think about it at all. -nd they do not care whether it is an autocracy, an oligarchy, a democracy, a despot, or a republic !! e0cept for those who want to use the police power to compel others to do their will." don1t care what it is that you want the government to do for you !! if you can1t see yourself doing it, gun in hand, then don1t ask that the government hold the gun and do it for you. "t is neither our 5ob nor that of the government to use force to stop us from being stupid, or hateful, orimmoral, or discriminatory, or to help the poor, or provide medical care, or schooling, or art, or homes. "t is not for you, or me, or the government, to stop people from making informed voluntary e0changes, in business, employment, housing, friendships, churches, civic organi$ations, or love, no matter what the circumstances." might be able to tolerate government intervention in those few cases where it supports a public good and there are very few real public goods#, or in the case of regulating natural monopolies and there are few natural monopolies, and innovation often creates competition, eliminating them#.3owever, " am very wary of this, and with good reason. The fact is, all of us look out for ourselves at all times. -nd almost all of us would love to be able to draw upon the resources of others without paying everything that they might demand. Throughout history, whoever has held the police power, be they few or many, has used it to benefit themselves at the e0pense of everyone else. When it was 5ust a few, it was obvious and un5ust. But as more and more people participate in the political process, nearly every single group has used government to benefit itself at the e0pense of everyone else.-nd it1s hardly surprising that they do so. -fter all, everyone else has done it. The group getting the benefit gains enormously, so it is worth it to them to lobby hard for it. &veryone else loses only a little, so it1s worth little to fight it. -nd so we lose a little here to )teel, a little there to (edicine, a little elsewhere for the children, and on and on and on until it adds up to half of whatwe make. -nd all the while, using the government to steal gains more and more legitimacy, and people wind up having either to lose their moral outrage at violation of rights, or else lose their respect for all laws, including those that protect rights."f we are going to have a 5ust society, we must limit government to its core functions6 protection of life, protection of liberty, protection of property, punishing those who transgress those rights, and gaining restitution from them for their victims