ABSTRACT
The title of this paper is intended to pose two questions: why do we have government, and why should we have government? The answer to the first question points directly to the answer of the second. To answer the first question by looking at the facts, governments actually come into being because some people conquer others and rule over them by force. The answer to the second question is that people may be able to preemptively design a government that is able to protect them from aggressors who want to rule over them, and the government they design may be less oppressive than a government that is imposed on them by outside aggressors. Having given a short answer to both of the questions posed by the paper’s title, the remainder of the paper offers a more detailed discussion of those answers, and addresses some possible objections to them.
