What is your definition of a "government"? In politics, everyone talks about the government, but few people seem to have a clear definition of what "government" (or "state") is. Here's my definition... In order to be considered a "government" or a "state," an entity must: 1.) Claim ownership of a territory that it did not legitimately homestead or voluntarily acquire 2.) Grant itself a monopoly* on force** in this territory I could stop here, but, for pragmatic reasons, it almost must follow that this entity must also: 3.) Sustain this monopoly on force by using the monopoly to forcefully extract funds from the masses. Of course, governments go far beyond this, but this is what I consider the traits of an entity must be in order to be considered a government. *I'm defining a "monopoly" as one entity having complete control of a market and all competition being violently prohibited. In other words, if a lemonade stand is the only lemonade stand around, this does not make it a monopoly per se. However, if any competing lemonade stands were prohibited by force, it would be a monopoly. **In this instance, I'm especially addressing defense industries such as police or military. The government can permit self-defense and still be a government.
