According to Osho, the best government is no government: rule itself is inhuman and politics thrives on fear, enemies, and war. While total statelessness may be utopian, he proposes a step: a single world government that drains politics of its 'enemy' juice, turning administration into mere functional service and paving the way toward a conscious, self-governing humanity.
No rulers is best, but until people grow up inwardly, one world team that simply serves everyone is the closest step.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS THE BEST GOVERNMENT? No government. The very idea of somebody governing somebody else is inhuman. Government is a game, the ugliest and the dirtiest game in the world. But there are people in the lowest state of consciousness who enjoy it: these are the politicians. The only joy of a politician is to govern, to be in power, to enslave people The greatest desire of all those who have reached to the peaks of consciousness has been the dream that one day we can get rid of all governments. That day will be the greatest in the whole history -- past, present, future -- of man, because getting rid of all governments will mean destroying the ugliest game, the game the politicians have been playing for centuries.
Osho, you spoke of a government-less society... But rajoguna, sattvaguna, and tamoguna have always gone together in every society. We have never seen or heard of a society in which only sattvic people exist, with no people of rajas or tamas, such that no governmental body would be needed. Even a panchayat body, even if it does not reach the level of a full government, is still a kind of governmental body. So I would like to ask: is your talk of a government-less society meant only for an idealistic society? Is it practical, or merely idealistic?
First, I am not saying that such a thing will definitely happen someday. But in aspiring toward it, much that is beneficial will happen. I am not saying it is bound to come to pass, nor that a day is destined to arrive when there will be a no-government society. But if the idea of no government is kept alive, a less-government society is born. Do you understand my meaning? I am not saying you will surely reach Everest. But if there is a longing to reach Everest, then climbing the Satpura and the Vindhyachal becomes possible. When you set the impossible as your goal, what is potential becomes possible; otherwise it does not. So my point is indeed idealistic; you are right. I am speaking quite utopianly: this is the ultimate notion—that it would be possible only if everyone on the earth became divine—which is not going to happen.…
Beloved Osho, I have heard you say that you would like to sever our relationships with all "isms." does this include rajneeshism as well?
It would be easier to call it something totally new, but then nobody would understand what it is. So until we have enough people to understand, we will have to carry a wrong label on it. Once they have understood, the label will be removed. Once we have our own world around this earth, "ism" is not going to be part of our way of life. So if you think Rajneeshism is also an "ism," throw it away. You have not understood anything. Your approach is still intellectual; otherwise, such a question would not have arisen. You can see -- no dogma is preached, no belief system is given. You are not required to accept anything. The atheist can become part of my communes, the theist can become part, the communist can become part, the capitalist can become part. We don't discriminate against anybody. Our basic approach is such, that…
Beloved Osho, if national boundaries and visa restrictions continue to separate us from you and from each other, what is best for us to do about it?
They will not. It is for me to find a way that they don't restrict you from seeing me, from being with me. I am working on it, and I don't think it will take a long time to find a way; perhaps a month at the most. So nobody need worry about it. We will soon have our own place which will not be under any country's rule. And I want a totally new experiment that has not happened in history. There have been anarchists -- their philosophy is one of the best. But it is so good that it becomes impossible to make it real; it remains utopian. Prince Kropotkin, Tolstoy -- these people dreamed of a humanity which one day would drop all governments. They thought that governments are the causes of all the evil that exists on the earth. To some extent they are right, but…
They console the poor to remain poor. They make him happy because the rich man will suffer in hell. They make the rich man happy because their consolation of the poor prevents revolution. The happy rich man goes on contributing to make big cathedrals, churches, because he knows that if he can manage here, he will be able to manage there too -- if even a camel can manage, do you think Rockefeller, Morgan or Ford will not be able to manage? They are certainly far more intelligent than a camel. I am certainly against poverty, and I want to destroy it completely. But to destroy it completely one thing has to be understood, that all preventive measures should be taken. People who are not giving birth to children should be rewarded. People who are giving birth to children -- their income taxes should go higher and higher.