Share This Article:

Economic Definition of government functions. Defined.

Offline Version: PDF

Term government functions Definition: Activities that are more efficiently performed by government than by private sector households and business. In fact, historical evidence (that is, 10,000 years of civilization--more or less) strongly indicates that we, regularly human-being-type people, are willing to put of with the coercive shenanigans of government (taxes, laws, regulations, abuse of power, oppression of the masses, meaningless wars) only because government does perform useful functions. Fire is the best analogy for government. When raging out of control both fire and government can cause horrific devastation. But when controlled, both can provide unparalleled good.

 

« government expenditures | government intervention »

Permalink: https://glossary.econguru.com/economic-term/government+functions

Alphabetical Reference to Over 2,000 Economic Terms