Definition

• Government is the mechanism by which laws, rules, and regulations are created, interpreted, and enforced.
• Governments today exist in the form of nation-states that assume the authority to exercise power over inhabitants without proper consent. The only law or rule that is appropriately enforced without consent is the Legal Principle. After all, that aggressors do not consent to refrain from aggressing is irrelevant. We are justly entitled to defend ourselves against aggressors even if they have not agreed to refrain from aggressing.
• However, when governments enforce laws, rules, or regulations that do not harmonize with the Legal Principle, they become coercive organizations that breach the Legal Principle.
• We need proper and fair governance to administer the Legal Principle justly.
• Governance can be achieved in many ways. The words we use, like ‘state’, ‘government’, ‘court’, ‘local community’, ‘democracy’, or ‘anarchy’, are not so important. What is essential is that governance be delivered without ever breaching the Legal Principle, which mandates that we must not aggress.
• According to the Live and Let Live Philosophy, even the government is justly restricted from aggressing. However, as long as the government does not aggress, it acts appropriately.

Legitimate government

• Governments (i.e., a group that administers governance) get their legitimate authority from people who voluntarily delegate some of their rights to it. These rights existed before the government was formed.
• The purpose of government is to secure such rights, not to grant them. Indeed, governments have no rights to grant. We create government, not the other way around.
• Governments act appropriately when they act as our agent to defend our pre-existing rights.
• Because we each have the right to defend ourselves and others against aggression, we can legitimately delegate that right to the government or anyone else.
• None of us has a right to aggress, so none of us can delegate a right to aggress to the government or anyone else. As such, when the government aggresses, it acts illegitimately.

‘That which we resist, persists’

• The 3L Movement is not against the government. No government in history has been known to comply with the Legal Principle, but there is nothing in nature that prevents the tool of government from being used in peaceful ways.
• A legitimate government does not violate the Legal Principle.
• 3L’s mission is to align all laws globally with the Legal Principle and inspire all to adopt the voluntary Aspirational Values. In a world where this mission has been achieved, forms of government that adhere to the 3L Philosophy can serve in various useful functions.