In general, do governments act in the best interest of people they govern?
by 
bowlinggreen
ANSWERS: 14
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Yes, I believe they do... whether or not we like the way things are going.. its much like a child under a parents guidance. They may not be able to tell us why (security or just knowledge), but there are reasons for what they do, when they do it, and how it is exercised. We don't have all the facts, and probably wouldn't understand the full realm of actions vs. reactions for what they do. Corruption in government is always a card to be played, however, I don't believe that, other than monetary (and that usually backfires), that it has changed the directive for the good of the people.
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Governments act in their own interests, but most of the time this has a side effect of also benefiting it's citizens.
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Depends on the people in power. It's faulty thinking to generalize about a particular demographic - politicians are no different. A government is made up of individuals and as such can reflect the entire spectrum of individuals out there. There were and are governments that do act in the best interest of the people they govern, there were and are governments that do not.
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I heard of a woman who prayed to Gawd about that very question, and reportedly, she was astounded when Gawd actually ANSWERED her. She had asked, "Will governments ever act in the best interest of people they govern?" Gawd replied, "Well, all I can tell you, my child, is that it won't happen during MY lifetime."
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Usually only as little as necessary to prevent being overthrown by the people.
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Interesting - I don't believe so. Perhaps they do sometimes. Acting in the pest interests of the people doesn't necessarily mean doing what the people want. I am not convinced that if we took all the governments of the world and analysed them that we would say they tend to act in the interests of the people. I think it may be the reverse. If it happens to be in the interests of the people, then sometimes that is just a happy coincidence.
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In general- no.
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ANY generalization about all governments is totally unfair: How can the totalitarian regime of Kim Il-Sung be categorized in the same group as the Canadian Parliament? How can the stalinist USSR's government be compared to the traditional monarchy of Bhutan? How, especially, can you take all of the immensely varying forms of government and answer a broad question like "In general, do governments act in the best interest of the people they govern?"
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not anymore
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No. To the extent that governments answer to "the people" (by which I mean "respond to polling data") in the nominal democracies of the West, they employ great advertising and public relations talent to help them rationalize their actions to appear to be in "our best interests", which isn't the same thing at all. But the fact that they always find a reason to act is more often than not ... because of their own past bad acts.
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In general, seldom, if ever.
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They act in the best interest of the people who run the government.
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In general, they don't act in the best interest of the people. They may only be in government for a short time, they tend to grab what they can before it's time to get out.
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No, Our government (The US) act's in the best interest of the US government. We are simply the peasants that support the enlightened governing class.
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