use the words of the seventeenth-century English political philosopher
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679).
The importance of having checks on the government’s arbitrary use of its
monopoly is seen in the disasters that ensue in the many dictatorships
that misuse their power. The USSR under Stalin, Uganda under Idi Amin,
Nigeria under Sanni Abacha, Cambodia under Pol Pot, Iraq under
Saddam Hussein, Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe, and Libya under
Muammar Gadaffi are a few of many examples from the past 75 years.
When the government’s monopoly of violence is secure and functions with effective
restrictions against its arbitrary use, citizens can safely carry out their ordinary economic and
social activities.The provision of national defence is a basic function of government,
which helps to allow citizens to carry out their ordinary economic and
social activities.
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