GOVERNMENT AS AN INSTITUTION FOR HUMAN FULFILLMENT

Abstract

In the contemporary US economy, to maintain the government can somehow be related to human fulfillment seems to be odd. This is especially the case during the Reagan administration when the government was seen to be inherently evil. The catchword was “To Get the Big Government Off Our Back”, because the government seems to always stand in the people's way, to interfere with their freedom, and to tax them unjustly. Government, therefore, is detrimental to human fulfillment. This anti‐government attitude is quite understandable. In the tradition of classical liberalism, human fulfillment is considered primarily an individual matter and predicated upon individual freedom. As the role of government increases, individual freedom is assumed to be decreased. There is a competitive or substitutive relationship between the government and the individual.

Citation

Sun, L. (1994), "GOVERNMENT AS AN INSTITUTION FOR HUMAN FULFILLMENT", Humanomics, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 76-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb018758