You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
A government’s role is only to provide defence capability and urban infrastructure (roads, water supplies, etc.). All other services (education, health, social security) should be provided by private groups or individuals in the community. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.
Sample Answer:
Nowadays, the responsibilities of the government are being debated quite a lot by the people and human rights activists. The state role should only be limited, restricted and confined to few sectors or it should cover every aspect of their citizens and residents’ well-being is a topic of great debate. It has been argued that the government should only be accountable for developing country’s military capabilities and infrastructure enhancement or it should be responsible for other important facilities i.e. education, medical, social protection as well. I strongly believe that all the aspects of life associated with state citizens should be directly undertaken, developed, maintained and operated by the state authorities. This argument will be proven by taking into account availability of resources with government and monopoly by private entities and individuals.
Firstly, the funds and financing available by the state is substantially high giving them the cushion to allocated funds and projects for every sector according to its requirements. For instance, the state collects the tax from its citizens on the reason and commitment that the taxpayer’s money will again be spent by utilising on the development and improvement of the infrastructure, healthcare, transportation system etc. On the contrary if it refuses to oblige and falls back on the commitment of spending money on public it could result in reduction in popularity and tax collection. The example shows clearly that the government has the money available in its pool which could be wisely spent for every department and sector. This is evident from the above discussion that budgetary allocation should be done to all public sectors for facilitating general public.
Secondly, depending on private companies and personnel to establish such important divisions i.e. medical, education etc. can create a monopoly and result in deprivation of these facilities for underprivileged people. For instance, the private owner will develop any of the hospitals for commercial purposes and the poor people won’t be able to afford that treatment. This example illustrates that the private people should not be given the sole responsibility to manage these core sectors. Thus, it can be seen that giving individual companies this major role could sabotage the lives of underserved people of the society.
In a nutshell, the resources present with the state and cartel thinking of individuals should be kept in mind by the state authorities for developing or upgrading country. I do believe that the state should be completely responsible for building the basic necessities concerning their citizen life and health. I suppose, going another way round could complicate the problems for sitting government as private individuals could be involved in blackmailing in case their demands are not met.
[ Written by – Mubaxhir Mehdi ]