Every group of people that lives together has to settle the same questions. Who keeps the peace? Who defends against attack? Who builds the roads no one family could build? Who decides a quarrel when two neighbors both say they are right? Government is the set of people and institutions with the authority to make rules for a society and to enforce them. In colonial self-government you saw Americans running their own assemblies; this course asks what all that machinery is for.
Why it works
People accept rules and taxes because government can do things that are hard or impossible to do alone. It keeps order, so disputes are settled by law instead of by force. It provides security against threats from inside and outside. It supplies public goods, such as national defense, clean water systems and roads, which everyone benefits from and no one can easily be kept from using, so private sellers tend to provide too little of them. And in the American tradition it exists to protect rights. Thinkers disagree about which purpose matters most; the next topics give their arguments.
Key idea
The Preamble lists six purposes (goals) of the government: a more perfect Union, Justice, domestic Tranquility, the common defence, the general Welfare and the Blessings of Liberty. The articles that follow grant the powers (the means) to reach them.
| Purpose in the Preamble | In plain words | A power that serves it |
|---|---|---|
| form a more perfect Union | bind the states together | regulate commerce among the states (Article I) |
| establish Justice | fair laws and courts | create federal courts (Articles I and III) |
| insure domestic Tranquility | peace at home | call out the militia to put down an insurrection (Article I) |
| provide for the common defence | protect the nation | raise armies and maintain a navy (Article I) |
| promote the general Welfare | the people's well-being | tax and spend (Article I) |
| secure the Blessings of Liberty | protect freedom now and later | limits such as the Bill of Rights restrain the government itself |
Worked example: Purpose or power?
Article I, Section 8 says Congress may "lay and collect Taxes." Is that a purpose or a power?
- Ask what the phrase names: an outcome the government aims at, or an action it is allowed to take.
- Collecting taxes is an action, a tool. It names no goal by itself.
- Taxes pay for the common defence and the general Welfare, which are purposes.
Answer: A power. It serves purposes such as the common defence and the general Welfare.
Worked example: Matching an action to a purpose
A federal court decides a contract dispute between a company in Ohio and a company in Texas. Which purpose in the Preamble does that serve?
- The court settles a quarrel by law, so neither side has to use force or rely on a court that might favor its own state.
- Fair settlement of disputes is the meaning of "establish Justice."
Answer: Establish Justice.
Common mistake
Mixing up purposes and powers. "Provide for the common defence" is a goal; "raise and support Armies" is a power that serves it. Quick check: a purpose answers "why?"; a power answers "what may the government do?"