One of the central questions of political philosophy is the purpose of government. Many great political philosophers, from Plato to John Rawls, have concerned themselves with this question. Political philosophy is the study of the fundamental questions about the state, government, politics, property, law and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it should... Plato (Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn) (ca. ... John Rawls (February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American philosopher, a professor of political philosophy at Harvard University and author of A Theory of Justice (1971), Political Liberalism, and The Law of Peoples. ...

One common formulation is that the purpose of the state is to protect rights and to preserve justice. A countervailing formulation is that government exists to protect the privileges of a few, preserving a state of injustice for the majority. But such propositions raise more questions than it answers. Which and whose rights? What sort of justice? There are, after all, many different conceptions of what rights are, and what constitutes justice. A right is the power or privilege to which one is justly entitled or a thing to which one has a just claim. ... Allegory of Justice as woman with sword and with book - statue at court building. ...

It is on those questions that one can find the differences between conservatism, socialism, liberalism, libertarianism, fascism, especially the latter, and other political ideologies. There are also two ideologies - anarchism and communism - which argue that the existence of the state is unjustified and ultimately harmful. For this reason, the kind of society they aim to establish would be stateless (anarchism advocates the establishment of such a society immediately, while communism wishes to delay it to some point in the future, after an intermediate period of socialism). However, the majority of viewpoints agree that the existence of some kind of government is morally justified. What they disagree about is the proper role and the proper form of that government. Conservatism is any of a number of political philosophies supporting traditional values or an established social order. ... The color red and particularly the red flag are traditional symbols of Socialism. ... This article discusses liberalism as a major political ideology, not the usage of the term in specific countries. ... Libertarianism is a modern political philosophy that strongly advocates the maximization of individual rights, private property rights, and free market capitalism. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Anarchism derives from the Greek αναρχία (without archons (rulers)). Thus anarchism, in its most general meaning, is the belief that rulership is unnecessary and should be abolished. ... Communism refers to a theoretical system of social organization and a political movement based on common ownership of the means of production. ...

There are several ways to conceive of the differences between these different political views. For example, one might ask in what areas should the government have jurisdiction, to what extent it may intervene in those areas, or even what constitutes intervention in the first place (a lot of institutions can be said to exist only because the government provides the framework for their existence; for instance, Marxists argue that the institution of private property only exists due to government). Marxism is the social theory and political practice based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... // Use of the term The concept of property or ownership has no single or universally accepted definition. ...

The criteria mentioned above often serve to distinguish political views on the political spectrum, or the left/right axis. A political spectrum is a way of comparing or visualizing different political positions, by placing them upon one or more geometric axes. ... Left-Right politics are traditional terms that represent broad competing political visions, whose meanings have evolved and can sometimes be contradictory, yet widespread acceptance has kept them in use. ...

The constitutions of various countries codify practical views as to the purposes of their governments, but they tend to do so in rather vague terms, which particular laws, courts, and actions of politicians subsequently flesh out. In general, various countries have translated vague talk about the purposes of their governments into particular state laws, bureaucracies, enforcement actions, etc.

The modern democratic state is transparent, so anybody can see what is going on in the democratic process. Anybody can get involved in any issue he is interested in, the democracy is alive every day, not just once every four years.

The goal of most constitutions is to allow the people to rule itself, and the democratic organisation of our world is growing, the number of ordinary people involved is growing. New communication methods like computers and internet allows us to be present where decisions are made, and we have the right to get involved and influence the decisions with fair and peaceful methods.

See also

• The justification of the state