The following is an excerpt from our short course entitled “What Could Governments Do for Us?”
In our previous posts, we discussed the difficulties faced by Congress and the president when deciding the best mix if taxation, spending, and borrowing. In this post, we discuss specific budgetary choices concerning national security and the advancement of national interests abroad.
Most governments have a military to defend their territory, police to keep order, and a judicial system to prosecute people who break the law. In some countries and times, government leaders stay in power by using the military, police, and judicial system to repress the poor or various religious, racial, or ethnic groups. (Haiti under President François Duvalier is a good example.) In other countries and times, the military focuses only on national defense, the police protect citizens and their property from criminals, and the courts weigh evidence in criminal cases fairly and expeditiously framed by mutually understood rules.
- Click here to see how countries are ranked by GlobalFirePower.com.
- Click here to see how country police forces were ranked by the Institute for Economics and Peace.
- Click here to see country rankings from the World Justice Project for “criminal justice” and “order and security.”
Foreign invaders and domestic criminals are not the only threats to our physical and economic security. Natural disasters such as fires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornados routinely damage lives and properties. Pests can threaten our food crops, while poor sanitation during food processing can threaten our food supply. Many diseases can threaten our livestock as well as ourselves. Some jobs are dangerous. Thus, most governments have at least some capacity to manage many of these threats. They may provide fire departments, fire safety regulations, rescue units, flood control, disease control, pest control, food safety regulations, job safety regulations, and so on. Some of these, like fire codes and firefighting, reach as far back as ancient Rome.
Most governments also employ some form of diplomacy to advance their security and commercial interests. Allies in defense and trade can be very valuable. Governments seek such partners by establishing and staffing embassies worldwide, participating in regional and international bodies, and using media to spread their messages. Those countries with the most trade (and thus creating job opportunities for their citizens) typically have the most embassies. In 2016, the U.S. had embassies in almost every country, closely followed by China.
- Click here to see embassy networks by country (Lowy Institute).
If you want more, the posts coming over the next several weeks will offer descriptions of additional budgetary functions common to many governments. In many cases, links have been provided to allow you to make comparisons across countries.
To see the full short course, click on the blue link “What Can Governments Do for Us?“
We offer several other short courses on the U.S. system of government. You can find them here: https://cffad.org/topics/
