ABSTRACT
In this chapter I shall review two broad arguments that proceed from the putative fact of the state’s providing benefits to the citizens. I shan’t argue for a general proposition to the effect that states benefit their citizens since if there are any facts hereabouts they can only be, or derive from, facts about particular states at particular times. It is true that one could construct a model of the modern state and list or categorize typical benefits or services that the model state provides. But the contents of the list and certainly the extent and range of provision (how much of the good and to how many people it is made available) will vary from actual state to actual state. We should expect the modern state to provide personal protection and external security – the traditional function of the nightwatchman who patrols the streets and guards the city walls. Beyond this, the state will generally make available (or indeed compel citizens to take) a great range of benefits and public goods.1 But the provision of these goods will incur costs, which will also vary from state to state, and besides the costs of benefit provision the state may also impose severe burdens on some if not all of its citizens. For these reasons, in any particular case where a citizen is reviewing the benefits provided by the state, the final judgement will always be one concerning net benefits (or costs). This is important because we understand perfectly well that the costs and burdens in particular cases can greatly outweigh the benefits. In such a case any argument from the receipt of benefits by the citizen will be a nonstarter. For these reasons, we should regard all arguments based on the citizens’ receipt of benefits as conditional, having the form: ‘If the citizens benefit significantly from the activities of the state, then . . .’ In what follows we shall assume that this condition is met; if it is not met, the conclusion which is supposed to follow from it will be unsound. We shall also have occasion to notice that this initial conditional statement may need to be more specific. Whether some or all citizens benefit, and if only some, which ones, may make a difference to the question of whether or not citizens have duties imputed to them.
