FREE ESSAY ON A JUST GOVERNMENT

A JUST GOVERNMENT

A Just Government
In Athens to New York we studied many different governments and many different cultures.
With the great variety of cultures, religion, and governments it was a surprise to see
that many people wanted the same goals in their life style. Many of these cultures wanted
a fair government that would protect them as well as allow them to run their lives the
way that they want to.
The book Antigone was based on a society that was dedicated to thinking that their ruler
knew what was best for them. This system of government was what brought about the death
of the ruler's niece Antigone. As an individual under that government she was forced to
behave in a way against her beliefs and her morals. No government has the right to deny
one of their citizens the right to have their own beliefs. Once a government denies a
person the right to believe in what they want to believe in then it is a sign that the
government is no longer fair and just. Once Antigone was denied the right to mourn for
her own brother then that was other people in the community should have stood up with her
and revolted against the king. If a government can not listen to what the majority wants
then that government has no right to be in power.
After reviewing all the information handed down to us over the many generations I have
come to realize that finding a just and fair government is almost impossible. Our race
has been experimenting with different types of governments since the beginning of
civilization. Even in the early ages when humans lived in caves we were experimenting
with a type of leadership system. Though it was very rugged and not very fair cave people
did have small governments. These early governments were based on evolution, survival of
the fittest. The strong were in charge and the weak were left in the lower ranks with the
women as the lowest group in this system. Though this was not very fair we evolved to
realize that there are better ways to govern.
As time went by we experimented with another government. This time we tried the feudalism
We had kings ruling over us and knights protecting us. People lived in the country
protected by huge walls that surrounded the entire kingdom. This system worked well for
awhile. The kings took care of everything. They made the laws and they were the judge and
jury. They had knights to police the kingdom and protect it from other kingdoms trying to
take them over. Then beneath the kings and the knights are the servants, or the peasants.
Peasants made up the greatest portion in the feudal system. Peasants were given some
freedom though. They were allowed to choose what they wanted to do for a living. Some
would choose to be farmers, some blacksmiths, some merchants, and others would do so of
they many other jobs available. But even though this system worked for some time, there
were many problems with this type government. There was never the ability to move up and
the king made the decisions based on what he thought was best rather then what the people
wanted.
Later the feudalism government developed to become a more democratic system. Which is the
current government in England. This system worked out better because finally the majority
of the popularity, the working class which used to be known as the peasants, finally had
a say on some of decisions which the government made. This type of government seems to be
working pretty well. It gives the working class a chance to decide what their government
will do. It also allows the working class to grow and raise their status in the classes.
However some of the few problems with this type of government are that people have to be
born into power and the people don't get complete freedom to do what they want to do.
This government like some others is still effective in keeping a fair system of
government.
Communism is another for of government that has seemed to retain its popularity. Though
Communism is a very sparse system of government currently used by only one country, Cuba,
it was at one point a popular government. Communism is a system that is based on
equality. Everyone is treated as equals. All the working class is seen with the same
regards so the is no favorites and no one is more important than any other person.
Communism has many problems though. It sees all people as equals and it treats all
workers as equals as well. Which means that a doctor would make the same amount of money
as a farmer no matter how much harder he works. This seems very unfair and offers very
little incentive for someone to work hard since that person would never be able to move
up in the class level. And in Communism it is the few or the one that makes the decisions
concerning the rest of the people. One person or a few people having absolute power means
that the rest of the country has no say in what the laws should be. But there are better
systems of government.
Democracy is one of the systems that is most accepted as the best system currently in
use. Democracy is based on the idea that the laws for a society would be based on what
the society wanted them to be. Democracy is a very popular type of government because
with democracy people have more freedom and they get what they work for. In this system
it is the people who elect their leaders. So the people decide who they want to represent
their ideas. And it is the people who decide what laws they want to be put in and what
laws they want to be removed. Each state has a representative that is chosen by the
people to represent the people of that state. Each state also has their own version of a
local government. Which is lead by a representative of the people of that state. And in
each state there are also municipalities which are an even smaller version of the
democratic government. And as all the other versions these municipalities are lead by
representatives chosen by the people from that municipality.
Even though a government does not have to run as a democratic government most countries
have chosen to be democratic. A democratic government seems to be the most fair and just
government around at this time. A democratic government offers many qualities that the
other governments listed are not capable of meeting. This government offers the most
people oriented government then any other that we have tried. It allows people to chose;
what their religion is, how they want to run their lives, whether they want work at home
or for a company, even for women, and other benefits. The only problem with this system
is that it is oriented on what the majority the majority gets.
A majority rules policy seems to be very good but it is not fair to all. When there is
more middle class citizens then there are upper or lower class then the majority may make
decisions that could hurt the minority, even though the majority thinks that they are
doing the right thing. Another problem with a majority rules government is that the
minority being a minority if often ignored and not listened to. This is a problem because
a minority will have trouble getting what they want from a government when the majority
takes a different or opposite side to an issue. In these cases the minorities are often
forgotten. Which could make the poor become even poorer. So democracy also has its
problems.
A fair and just government is one that can meet the demands of every individual. That
means that a just government would be able to provide the minority with what they want as
well as providing the majority with what they want. But if a government were to have
different rules for each group of people then that government would not be a fair
government. In order for a government to be just and achieve fairness as well a
government would have to able to make it so that all people want the same thing and make
it so that all people are capable of living at one standard. Even this has its problems
unless you can eliminate poverty, greed, selfishness, corruption, and all other feelings
like that. But there will always be someone that is unhappy and wants to have more than
the others do. And those feeling would also have to be accommodated for in a just and
fair government. A truly fair and just government seems to be a challenge which may be
impossible to achieve.
With all the different governments available to a highly civilized society it is hard to
believe that we can not find a truly just and fair system of government. Even though we
can not find the ideal or perfect system of government we can not deny the fact that the
democracy is by far the most just and fair government we have available to us at this
time. And someday we may finally find that we have achieved a status were poverty and
greed does not exist, and on that day we may find a truly fair and just system but until
then the Democracy is the best type of government to have.