is government (in any form) inherently unjust?

Answer 1

all goverments are unjust at times. imperfect people legislate imperfect laws and there is no way to handle the special circumstance .. this of course in the best case scenario. governements are generally unjust because they protect the power-base that enabled them in the first place. the under-represented and un-represented are always the scapegoats of the larger ruling parties. one could argue that a representative government has the best hope of being the most just based on pure numbers but that is a rather utilitarian view of justice.

Answer 2

I agree with tonkatruk. Gov't by its very nature is force. Some of its goals are benign, others malicious, but its means are always by force.

The least unjust gov't is that gov't which does only those duties explicitly spelled out in its Constitution, using the least harmful means to citizens' freedoms & property (including their money). This basically boils down to having a minimalist gov't, or "minarchy", that is highly limited in its taxing, legislative, & executive powers.

Democracy is definitely a step up from monarchy or dictatorship, but it is not an ideal system in itself. Unconstrained democracies quickly fall into dictatorship when one group of people can vote to take away the rights or property of another. This is known as the "tyranny of the majority" and as one person once said, is like two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.

Aside from a pure meritocracy (which is good, but subject to its own biases), a democracy is probably the best system of gov't. But it must be limited so that:
A. the gov't can not grow out of control, and
B. the people & legislature have no power to take away the freedoms or property of unfavored minorities.

I've written a bit about this in more detail elsewhere, but that's too long to cut-n-paste here, so I'll just provide the links to it below. They are:
"On alternative forms of representative government:
Part 1: Democracy's shortcomings
Part 2: A more enduring democracy
Part 3: Safeguarding liberty"

Answer 3

Yes, all governments are inherently unjust, as the purpose of government is preservation of itself, and that purpose must necessarily be in constant conflict with each individual's need to assert their own political agenda. And if the individual's need to be asserting his or her own agenda (to maximize happiness) is in conflict with the state's need for preservation, injustice must occur. Naturally, every state tries its best to sell its self preservation agenda as one that that the state's inhabitants ought to subscribe to in order to secure happiness, but that is not what most of the state's inhabitants seek, as their primary concern is their happiness and not that of the state's preservation. Obviously, one cannot be truly happy if one's happiness is in any way contingent upon the existence or the non existence of an artificial entity, like a god or a state; so, in short, all states must be unjust. And, of course, any god would be unjust too, and that is why a state will seek to subscribe it's very existence to that of some such a deity.

Answer 4

Many goverments are inherently just (for the most part). It has been common in history for there to be governments with corrupt leaders, alternating with good leaders in the same political state, over successive eras.

Answer 5

No, without government we would be living in a chaos. Humans are naturally good. Democracy limits the abuse of power. Go to countries where the people live in anarchy you will find that the people who live under a democratic government are living a lot better.

Answer 6

No

Ignoring injustice, with no solidaity, is inherently unjust.

Answer 7

In ages old when people were led by sages, there was justice. But today when any wisacring attorney can become a politician, what can we expect?

Answer 8

Beats the heck out of anarchy

Answer 9

Yes, for some. Like some people are more equal than others.

Answer 10

Government by (complete) consensus can dodge that accusation--but who lives under such government?