Capitalism is the system of the future—if man is to have a future. —Ayn Rand

Government

A government is an institution that holds the exclusive power to enforce certain rules of social conduct in a given geographical area.
["The Nature of Government," The Virtue of Selfishness]

. . . the purpose of law and of government is the protection of individual rights.
["The Nature of Government," The Virtue of Selfishness]

The Declaration of Independence laid down the principle that "to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men." This provided the only valid justification of a government and defined its only proper purpose: to protect man's rights by protecting him from physical violence.
["Man's Rights," The Virtue of Selfishness]

The proper functions of a government fall into three broad categories, all of them involving the issues of physical force and the protection of men's rights: the police, to protect men from criminals—the armed services, to protect men from foreign invaders—the law courts, to settle disputes among men according to objective laws.
["The Nature of Government," The Virtue of Selfishness]

The only function of the government, . . . is the task of protecting man's rights, i.e., the task of protecting him from physical force; the government acts as the agent of man's right of self-defense, and may use force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use.
["What Is Capitalism?" Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal]

All the reasons which make the initiation of physical force an evil, make the retaliatory use of physical force a moral imperative.
["The Nature of Government," The Virtue of Selfishness]

The retaliatory use of force requires objective rules of evidence to establish that a crime has been committed and to prove who committed it, as well as objective rules to define punishments and enforcement procedures . . . . If a society left the retaliatory use of force in the hands of individual citizens, it would degenerate into mob rule, lynch law and an endless series of bloody private feuds or vendettas.

If physical force is to be barred from social relationships, men need an institution charged with the task of protecting their rights under an objective code of rules.

This is the task of a government—of a proper government—its basic task, its only moral justification and the reason why men do need a government.

A government is the means of placing the retaliatory use of force under objective control—i.e., under objectively defined laws.
["The Nature of Government," The Virtue of Selfishness]

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