Government Intervention Essay

In modern society, governing bodies of countries commonly carry out various forms of government intervention. Government intervention is defined as regulatory actions taken by a government in order to affect decisions made by individuals, groups or organisations. The nature of government intervention means that governments ultimately have to interfere in the private affairs of citizens, both in terms of their autonomy and their wellbeing. As it is the responsibility of the government to protect the national interest of the country, government intervention is a necessary practice to encourage progress and the collective good of the nation. Both active and passive intervention can be evaluated under various ethical principles, and its ultimate

As stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), government intervention infringes on the fundamental rights stated in Article 3 and 12, which ascertains the individual’s right to liberty and privacy. Both active and passive intervention compromises these rights, removing the right to autonomy of an individual, and infringes on the private lives of citizens. Furthermore, while the act of government intervention can be justified as being in the best intentions of the collective good, what constitutes as ‘best intentions’ is debatable and the subsequent effect of intervention may act against public interest. Contrasted against the successful anti-natalist policies of Singapore, China’s anti-natalist ‘One Child Policy’ had a less-successful run, and the implementation of this policy had severe repercussions on the socio-cultural sphere of China. The policy compromised the civil liberties of many individuals and resulted in serious human right violations such as the coercion of women to have abortions and infant violence. While successfully reducing population size, the policy had long-term detriments on China’s future social and cultural development as a nation. In this case, the consequentialist concept of ‘the end justifies the means’ falls short, allowing for poor execution of interventionist policies with a supposedly justifiable aim.

Intervention is carried out with the ultimate aim of protecting the national interest of the country and for the greater good of its people, and in the process, prioritizing the needs and security of the many against the few. It fulfills the government’s responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of its citizens and promote development, both at individual and societal levels. As Mr. Lee Kuan Yew once stated, “I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if I had I not done that (sic), we wouldn’t be here today. “, government intervention is both necessary and desirable for the progress of a nation, and its