# XI: Concerning Government explained — News from Nowhere > Chapter companion for News from Nowhere by William Morris. ## What happens The Guest and Old Hammond discuss the nature of government in the 19th century, concluding that it was essentially a system of law-courts and police designed to protect the rich from the poor, and that in the new society, such government is unnecessary because the whole people is the parliament and tyranny has ended. ## Themes in this chapter ### Politics and Governance The chapter is a direct discussion of the nature and purpose of government, contrasting the oppressive, class-based system of the 19th century with the stateless, voluntary cooperation of the new society. ### Critique of Industrial Capitalism Old Hammond argues that the old government existed to protect property rights and the rich, leading to the destruction of wealth and unutterable poverty for the poor. ## Character check-ins ### Guest The narrator asks probing questions about the nature of government in the old society and how the new society manages without one. ### Old Hammond Old Hammond explains that the old government was merely the machinery of tyranny, and that in the free society, no such government exists; the whole people is the parliament. ## Key lines > It was considered a miracle of justice and beneficence if a poor man who had once got into the clutches of the law escaped prison or utter ruin. In the old days, it was seen as an extraordinary act of fairness if a poor person who became entangled with the legal system avoided imprisonment or complete financial ruin. _Highlights the injustice of the 19th-century legal system toward the poor._ > The government by law-courts and police, which was the real government of the nineteenth century, was not a great success even to the people of that day, living under a class system which proclaimed inequality and poverty as the law of God and the bond which held the world together. The actual government of the 19th century—the courts and police—failed even its own people, as it operated under a class system that treated inequality and poverty as divinely ordained and essential to social order. _Summarizes the chapter's central critique of historical governance._ > Our present parliament would be hard to house in one place, because the whole people is our parliament. Our current parliament cannot be contained in a single building, since every citizen is part of the decision-making body. _Describes the decentralized, participatory nature of governance in the new society._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/news_from_nowhere_se/chapters/xi-concerning-government - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/news_from_nowhere_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/news_from_nowhere_se/chapters