A Just Government Essay, Research Paper

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.