The Role of Government on a Society's Moral Values

Throughout history, societies all around the world have created governments to function around its community. The roman senate shaped itself around the huge roman empire, Greece with its ruling democracy and the Ottoman empire with its absolute monarchy, amongst others. All of these societies worked for their government and vice versa. If the government was not functional they will collapse, and if the community was not cooperative with its government, the idea of a government will simply fade, but in order to have this mutual relationship some moral values must be set up in between them. But who sets the baseline and standards for this moral values? Is the community a better source to create these values, or is it the government?
There are some societies in which the government created this moral values, and there are others in which the community itself sets the moral values. In some occasions one way worked, and on other occasions it failed. So there is no specific formula, or way to tell if which way will be the one that works for a certain society. Although it seems that letting the community establish their own moral values, has had a greater success than letting the government do it. This being said, the government should not be allowed to determine the moral values of the society..
To understand why would the community be better at this important task, first you must understand what is the meaning of a moral value. A moral value is principle or idea that is accepted by all of the community. This principle is a main factor on the day to day life of every person who is part of this society. The moral values serves as a tool to maintain the consensus and peace throughout the society.
As mentioned before, moral values help to...

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...t should be really careful in their actions so they don't upset someone. In this case the ends don't justify the means, so the government should think twice before they do something risky just to save the integrity of their own citizens.
In conclusion, government are not really well suited to establish the moral values of a society, but they are really well suited to protect. Every society needs someone to create the values, in which the community itself will be the answer, and a protector of this values which will preferably be the government.

Works Cited

Anderson, M., Angeli, E,. Brizee, A., Keck, R., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Paiz, J., Soderlund, L., & Wagner, J. (2013, January 3). General format. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu./owl/resource/560/01/

Remarque, E. M. (1929). All quiet on the western front. Germany: Propyläen Verlag.