protection.

Control. Synonyms are rule, management.

Applied to the personal level, self-government = self-control, rule over yourself.
At a municipal level, city government = city management.
At the federal level, federal government = federal control.

There are concepts such as self-defense, state property, national laws, and community service, but these don't cover the whole gamut found in that one word: Control.

This made me think further: Are you out of control? Are you in control? Are you being controlled?

Yes, to a large degree -- unconstitutional, in my opinion, but there it is.

Protection

DISTRIBUTION: of taxpayers` money...of resources... of rights...of laws...of propoganda...of employment... of borders...of knowledge...of education...of market value...of alliances...of "justice."

Trade

LIBERTY

Freedom

JUSTICE but today the government does have that purpose anymore. Used for ......

Defense.

One word. How about SERVICE?

Control

Loot!

And it is up to producers to thwart them.

Self-defense

They are my self-defense against the violation of my rights.

Freedom - to enable people to freely pursue their interests.

It should be,
"Facilitate", or if you like "To Serve".

But now days its "Control".

I agree with rockymountainpirate and Ranter. The single word that best describes the purpose of government is 'defend'. Our rights (to life, liberty, and property) are absolute without reference to government. 'Protection' connotes proactive use of force (as in Chicago-style protection). Government's only purpose for existing is to 'defend' our rights to life, 'liberty' and 'property' from the initiation of force or fraud by all bad actors,foreign or domestic. It's only legitimate 'power' is such constitutionally delimited power as is necessary to defend us against the initiation of force or fraud. Government should never have the power to initiate force or fraud.

Serve

Order

Oppression.
Well... that is what its purpose has become. We, are all to become good little vassals.

I think the single proper purpose of an uber-government, such as the federal government is: Coordination.

Many of the other purposes, such as defense and liberty and rights can be the prerogative of state governments or even county militia. In order to be able to defend against a common foe, though, someone has to be able to coordinate all of these units together. Similarly, when a child is kidnapped across state lines, there has to be some way of not dropping the search for the child. Water and power that pass through several states also need a coordinating body. (Though in fact this need, like the others, has been leveraged for Power rather than power.) The EU has had to cobble itself together in an attempt to meet the clout of the US, which it cannot attain as separate nations.

So I think it is up to the people to value Liberty and Rights and up to the States (or locals) to train for defense...but it is actually useful to have a government that puts this all into a whole and which has a single great Constitution we all respect.

Jan, long-winded and in much more than one word

Force

Protection

Force


Otherwise it would just be and ad agency...

Defense