Sunday, February 13, 2011

Security: A Mission of Government and Governance

As defined in my post "The Purpose of Government", security for the organization, is the first mission of any government that wants to continue to exist.  There are two categories of "security" internal and external.  The "Founding Fathers" of the United States recognized this.  In the preamble to the US Constitution they stated that part of the US Government was to "...insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence...".  This illustrates that security is one of three key missions of government and that there are two categories of security, external, "the common defense" and internal, "domestic tranquility".  Any organization, even a single family must have both, though the forms of each range widely from highly effective to completely dysfunctional.  As you move toward the dysfunctional end of this range, the internal process friction increases and the external "defense" decreases.  As the process friction grows, the value of the organization (family) decreases until it comes apart.  This is true for organizations of any size.  Therefore, all organizations, including the most dictatorial, require some external and internal security.  There are other two posts are Standards: a Mission of Government, and Infrastructure: A Mission of Government that will discuss the other two missions of a government and governance.  Also see The Purpose of Government.

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