In the U.S. - AD/CVD on Products from China (DS379) report, the Appellate Body dabbled in a bit of political philosophy:
290. ... In this vein, the Appellate Body found, in Canada – Dairy, that the essence of government is that it enjoys the effective power to regulate, control, or supervise individuals, or otherwise restrain their conduct, through the exercise of lawful authority
As indicated in the quote, this just repeats what they said in Canada - Dairy (see para. 97 of that report).
I was curious about what others had to say about the "essence of government." The following is a random sample of quotes collected by searching Google for "essence of government."
Here's Lyndon Johnson:
I believe that the essence of government lies with unceasing concern for the welfare and dignity and decency and innate integrity of life for every individual.
Here's James Madison:
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
And here's a libertarian I've never heard of:
What is the essence of government? After you cut through all the rhetoric, the doublethink and the smokescreen of altruism that surround the subject, you find that the essence of government is force. And the belief it has the right to initiate the use of force whenever expedient. Government is an organization with a monopoly, albeit with some fringe competition, on the use of force within a given territory. As Mao Zedong said, "The power of government comes out of the barrel of a gun." There is no voluntarism about obeying laws. The consent of a majority of the governed may help a government put a nice face on things, but it is not essential and is, in fact, given with any enthusiasm.
