There is no particular and specific size and or powers of government that are set forth in the bible. I do think though that God often seeks to spread power out. (God prefers that for churches too I might add). Concentrated power is rarely a good thing. Sure there can be benevolent dictators, but many more are closer to tyrants. As to the entire scope of government, I do think that as the government has taken over many programs to help the poor and needy that this leaves churches with less of a role. For instance, food banks are still helpful, but not as critical if there was not SNAP or other welfare benefits to alleviate hunger. Many more socialist countries, create a dependence on the government and less on God in ways that can be unhealthy, such as giving aid so that people have little incentive to work.
If I had to sum up the role and size of government though, there is no magic number but instead each program should be conceived, implemented and checked to insure it accomplishes what its goals are. Where is is hard is that some programs probably need more government involvement and many others need less. It seems quite ignorant to me for someone to always say there is too much regulation, or too much government activity. Generally that might be the case, but there are also instances that need more government. Food and Drug use, inspection and safety comes to my mind.
Another theme from the bible to be a good steward. Government typically fails in this because it tends to be bloated and inefficient as is mentioned in here. U.S. health care for instance and the monies spent by the USA government yield pretty poor outcomes versus other Western nations. Some though say more privatization while others say a national system would be far more efficient. So sometimes the policies are tough to judge and require good discernment as to the motives of each promoter. If the motive is to simply save money, what then is that savings going too? So I would always argue that there is no definitive answer as to whether a specific government program should expand or contract. For instance, many think the IRS should be abolished, or severely reduced. I would argue they need more agents at present if one assumes that each additional agent finds at least 500,000 dollars in errors that increase legal government revenues. Why some would oppose that goes to motives.
