Question

Ethics

What do you think the primary role of the government should be?

Is it just to protect your liberties from other people inhibiting your rights? The government should focus on keeping other people from interfering in your self-actualization. This is a focus on negative rights. Think the Bill of Rights which is not about what the government can do for you, it is about how the government and others should leave you alone. This is the position of the right.

Is it also to help you get what you need to live a good life? The government should protect our liberties but it should also coordinate a basic redistribution of wealth to ensure that everyone is taken care of (this is predominately done through taxation). This is a focus on negative AND positive rights. Think socialism and the idea that the government shouldn't just be there to protect you from others, it should also be there to distribute goods and help the vulnerable and those in need. This is the position of the left.

What is the government there for? How much would your ideal government be involved in positive rights?

Answer 1

The government is a group of people governing a country or a state.The government works for the social welfare of the people,law and order, defence ,as well as for the financial affairs of the country.

Positive rights require government action.Positive rights are right to earn so as to get proper food and clothing,right to education,right to recreation, right to a decent shelter. Positive rights include other social and cultural rights like employment , national security,health care , social security,and a proper standard of living.Negative rights are freedom from slavery , freedom from violent crime, freedom of religion etc. The purpose of positive rights is to make the society equal.Right to religion may be a negative right but government intervention is needed to ensure that other peopl's right to religion is safeguarded. In this way this right is a positive right.  Thus both positive and negative rights may demand government action but the intention behind the action may be different.While positive rights arise from intention of good life, the other arises from making fundamental principles secure.The government should have the resources to implement the positive rights like the government should have the capacity to build infrastructure eg hospitals etc to fulfill these rights.The positive rights that the government can  propose largely depends on its resources as well as its living standards.For eg , the black plague had caused death to half of Europe's population and the government could not provide medical services to all citizens. In that case healthcare could not be considered as a right.Thus positive rights cannot be always fulfilled as a result of different government priorities as well as different government capacities.