Functions of Government

Constituent functions – the usual function of the government

(1) The keeping of order and providing for the protection of persons and property from violence and robbery.

(2) The fixing of the legal relations between man and wife and between parents and children.

(3) The regulation of the holding, transmission, and interchange of property, and the determination of its liabilities for debt or for crime.

4) The determination of contract rights between individuals.

(5) The definition and punishment of crime.

(6) The administration of justice in civil causes.

(7) The determination of the political duties, privileges, and relations of citizens.

(8) Dealings of the state with foreign powers: the preservation of the state from external danger or encroachment and the advancement of its international interests.

Ministrant functions - other functions which are undertaken, not by way of governing, but by way of advancing the general interests of society, - functions which are optional, being necessary only according to standards of convenience or expediency, and not according to standards of existence

(1) The regulation of trade and industry. Under this head I would
include the coinage of money and the establishment of standard weights and
measures, laws against forestalling and engrossing, the licensing of trades,
etc., as well as the great matters of tariffs, navigation laws, and the like.

(2) The regulation of labor.

(3) The maintenance of thoroughfares, - including state management of
railways and that great group of undertakings which we embrace within the
comprehensive term 'Internal Improvements.'

(4) The maintenance of postal and telegraph systems.

(5) The manufacture and distribution of gas, the maintenance of water-
works, etc.

(6) Sanitation, including the regulation of trades for sanitary purposes.

(7) Education.

(8) Care of the poor and incapable.

(9) Care and cultivation of forests and like matters, such as the
stocking of rivers with fish.