Protection of political and social rights

To some extent, all modern governments assume responsibility for protecting the political and social rights of their citizens. The protection of individual rights has taken two principal forms: first, the protection of liberty in the face of governmental oppression; second, the protection of individual rights against hostile majorities and minorities. From the 1960s to the mid-1980s the sphere of public discussion in the Soviet Union was gradually, though erratically, widened. While this widening never extended to the purely political, some of the sociological discussion allowed served to set the intellectual stage for the Gorbachev period of radical reform. Although the Soviet Union suppressed most expression of political opinion until the late 1980s, domination by a central authority protected the basic human rights of some groups from violent rival minorities. On a larger scale, this is also what suppressed many long-standing rivalries in eastern Europe during the Cold War. The degree of repression in the former communist states varied from country to country and changed with time after the death of Stalin.

In the second half of the 20th century in the United States, the Supreme Court expanded the rights of the criminally accused with such cases as Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), in which the Supreme Court ruled that indigent defendants had a right to a court-appointed attorney, and Miranda v. Arizona (1966), in which the court specified a code of conduct for police interrogations of criminal suspects held in custody. After the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954, the national government acted to bar legal discrimination against ethnic minorities, as well as women, people with disabilities, gays and lesbians, and the elderly. Indeed, in the second half of the 20th century, many (but not all) freedoms detailed in the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments to the Constitution) were extended. By the early 21st century, however, as the Supreme Court assumed a more conservative orientation, it shifted its focus away from the expansion of minority rights. For example, on issues of race, the Supreme Court ruled in the Bollinger decisions (2003) and in Ricci v. DeStefano (2009) that, while affirmative action policies aiming to provide minority groups with broader employment or educational opportunities could still be used, such policies were not valid if race was the determining factor.

Another type of government regulation bearing on the individual concerns the law of immigration and emigration. The great mass migrations of the 19th and early 20th centuries came to an abrupt halt after 1914 with the proliferation of government controls on the freedom of movement across national boundaries. After some later liberalization, immigration to the industrialized states again saw increased restrictions near the end of the 20th century.

Provision of goods and services

All modern governments participate directly in the economy, purchasing goods, operating industries, providing services, and promoting various economic activities. One of the indispensable functions of government—national defense—has made governments the most important consumers of goods, and they have not hesitated to use their resulting pricing, purchasing, and contracting powers to achieve various economic aims. In efforts to avoid dependence on private sources of strategic goods and defense materials, some governments have taken a further step and established their own military production plants. In wartime, governments have assumed control over entire industries and have subjected the work force to military direction in addition to rationing goods and regulating prices.

In nearly all political systems, certain functions are recognized as primarily public, or belonging to the government, although some aspects of these services may be handled by the private sector. In addition to national defense, public functions include the maintenance of domestic peace, public education, fire protection, traffic control, conservation of natural resources, flood control, and postal services. Many governments have assumed responsibility for additional commercial operations, even in nonsocialist countries. The sale of electric power, for example, is one of the established enterprising functions of national, state, and local governments in the United States and Canada. Municipally owned power utilities exist in many cities in North America; a number of states in the U.S. have public power districts; and the U.S. government markets power through the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Bureau of Reclamation, and several other agencies. Another range of functions, such as lending and insurance, are performed by other national agencies, including the Veterans Administration, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Federal Housing Administration.

Other miscellaneous enterprises in which governments are involved include the provision of health care, the operation of public transport facilities, the development of public works, airport and port maintenance, and water-supply systems. In Great Britain the government operates hospitals and provides medical care under the National Health Service. In the United States many state and local governments operate hospitals on a commercial basis, although providing some charity care. At the local level in the United States, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey constructs and operates bridges, terminals, and airports. The states in the Delaware Basin joined in a compact to establish an agency to control the use of water from the basin, institute programs to prevent pollution, provide recreation facilities, transmit and sell hydroelectric power, and provide watershed management. Cities in the United States and Canada operate dozens of urban transit systems, hundreds of municipal gas utilities, and thousands of water-supply systems. Cities are also generally responsible for garbage disposal, and many cities manage parks and recreational amenities, such as golf courses. Finally, a number of state governments control the distribution of alcohol.