What is the proper role of government in a free society? To answer this question, we must first understand what is meant by ‘government’.Government is the use of force. To govern means to control. The use of force is implicit in the definition of control. Otherwise, it would be ‘influence’ rather than control. Even the good things that governments do involve the use of force somewhere, somehow. Some times government uses force directly to control behavior. Other times, government uses money taken by force to fund activities which would otherwise not involve the use of force.Understanding that government is the use of force, the question then becomes ‘What is the proper use of force in a free society?’. Joseph Knight