The first duty of any government must be to protect the interests of the taxpayers.

任何政府的首要职责都必须是保护纳税人的利益。

《柯林斯英汉双解大词典》

The chief duty of every government is to protect persons and property.

政府的主要职能是保护人民和国家财产。

youdao

The government, after all, can do the thinking for us. Our sense of civic duty to engage in public debate and critical thinking is lost except unfortunately for issues that affect our pockets.

很不幸的，正是这种想法使我们失去了作为公民应有义务参与辩论和深入分析问题的责任感，除非有关的课题会影响我们的口袋，我们才会有所反应。

youdao

because you read the Bill of Rights, for example, The Declaration of Independence, citizens have a duty to put a new government if it is not serving well the people.

举个例子，如果你读《人权法案》,或者《独立宣言》,如果政府不够尽责,公民有权支持一个新的政府。

麻省理工公开课 - 媒体、教育、市场课程节选

That's what you learn, Hobbes believes, from the reading of Aristotle and the Greeks and Romans, regicide, that the only legitimate form of government is a republic and that it is a lawful and even it's your duty to kill your king.

唯一合法的政府应当是共和政体的政府，而且弑君在一定意义上也应当是合法的,甚至那还有可能是你应尽的义务,这就是那些年轻人从阅读亚里士多德,和古希腊罗马书籍中学到的东西。

耶鲁公开课 - 政治哲学导论课程节选

Mr White added the protection of the public was the duty of government and the police.

BBC: Nick Gargan

Senator MCCAIN: It's not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly whether they are big banks or small borrowers.

NPR: How Will Our Next President Fix the Economy?

The first duty of the government scientists at the USGCRP is to produce a complete picture of the science of the issue of global warming, which is what the taxpayers are paying them for.

FORBES: The Disgraceful Episode Of Lysenkoism Brings Us Global Warming Theory