Josh+Pitts

5 Purposes of Government By: Joshua Pitts, Cody Ott, Robert Paw ** The five purposes of Government is the entire reason of why the government exists. Government has the power to maintain all of these purposes because they are given this power. This power is given to the government by the people and through the force that they can apply. These two powers are called coercive force and legitimacy. Legitimacy means that the citizen are willingly giving their consent for the government to have control, with the understanding that they will be able to vote on people who they think will be a good leader. Coercive force mean that the government can force you to fallow the laws because the have police, courts. and military. Through coercive force the government can make you to do things like pay taxes, and give you fines or imprisonment. ** Definitions and Examples: ** 1. Provide national defense: ** Protecting the nation from foreign enemies and threats.
 * **Examples:** navy, air force, military, army, coast guard, and any other defense organization


 *  2. Maintain order: ** Solving conflicts/disagreements between group members so that there is order in the community.
 * **Examples:** Pay taxes, court, army, and laws

** 3. Provide public services: ** To provide needed services that support the life of the citizens.
 * **Example** **:** Schools, fire departments/fire fighters, FDA, parks, sewers, roads, trains and other structures that help people with day to day life that each individual can't obtain by themselves

 **4.Protect rights of individual people**: The government has to protect their citizens rights of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and their property through the law through respect of each other.
 * **Examples:** laws, and consequences if the laws are broken

** 5. Direct economic decision making: **Having the power to intervene in the economy when felt needed.


 * **Examples:** Laws, producing war items during war, and rationing the food when scarce