To distribute goods and services fairly, protecting everyone

1
What Is the Purpose of Government?

• To distribute goods and services fairly,
  protecting everyones right to equal opportunity
  and bettering the lives of all members of society
  (liberalism Rawls)
• To protect the right to own that which one is
  entitled to (libertarianism Nozick)
• To foster a sense of community rather than
  individualism (communitarianism Sandel)

2
John Rawls Justice as Fairness

• All citizens should share in a societys wealth
  and be given equal economic opportunities
• In a just society, rational individuals under a
  veil of ignorance about their original position
  in the society should endorse a theory that
• gives everyone as much liberty as possible
• allows for the unequal distribution of wealth
  only when the existence of such inequalities
  benefits everyone and is accessible to everyone

3
Libertarianism (Entitlement/Minimal State
Theory) Robert Nozick

• We are entitled to use our property as we see
  fit. The States legitimate power is limited to
  preventing harm and protecting property rights
• Taxation for anything other than protection
  (e.g., to impose a pattern redistributing wealth)
  is unjust because it ignores how goods are
  acquired fairly through trade, labor, gifts, etc.

4
CommunitarianismMichael Sandel

• We do not form governments to promote our
  individual self-interests such a view treats our
  sense of community only instrumentally (Hobbes)
  or sentimentally (Rawls)
• The purpose of government is to encourage us to
  recognize how we are constituted in our communal
  relations to one another