Wrong question. Question should be, "What can some governments do that others cannot do?" Why? Because everyone is a government for and to himself/herself.
Consider. If you were marooned alone on a deserted island, and the island had plenty of food and fresh water, who would be your government? Wouldn't it be you? It would be your governing of yourself that would cause you to go out and find the food and water. It would be your governing of yourself that tested ways to build shelter, and then use the methods that worked.
All government is a state of mind. When the government is complex - several people working with the same government - usually the government consists of writing down the rules of government. This is because people forget. People change their minds. Written government maintains a reasonable stable
state of mind among the people of the government.
In the United Kingdom, government is based first in the common law of the people. It goes all the way back to the Magna Carta, and certain maxims of law. These have stood strong for hundreds of years, and are strong today for use by the people. The only reason formal government people can get away with harming regular, common people is, the common people have forgotten the common law and Queen's Bench... which are there, but are simply seldom used.
Canada, other countries that have received their independence from Brittain, and the British protectorates, contain this common law. Some of these have restated the common law of the people in their constitutions in such ways that they still use Queen's Bench, but where there is a direct reaffirmation of the basic common laws - Magna Carta essence, and maxims.
In the United States, Queen's Bench was completely dropped. The common law of the people is assumed and presumed in the way that the government was set up. Every person who was born within the borders of the Untied States of America or one of its territories, has the right to use the common law of the people. However, few people use it as such.
In order to take away the power of the people, the U.S. government has adopted what they call common law into their statute law. Don't be deceived. This is not the common law of the people. Rather, it is simply case law, designed to be used with 14th Amendment citizens, which thing the People are not. Even the juries of the land are not common law of the people juries. Why not? They are made up (except under rare occasions) of 14th Amendment citizens.
In America, you are allowed a jury of your peers when you are accused. If you are not a citizen, but rather one of the people domiciled on the land, try finding a jury that is not made up of people who say that they are
citizens. These days it is virtually impossible. Since you are guaranteed a jury of your peers, case dismissed because they can't find anyone who will admit to not being a citizen, yet is domiciled here (in the States) at the same time.
http://1215.org/http://www.broadmind.org/http://www.unkommonlaw.co.uk/http://www.myprivateaudio.com/Karl-Lentz.html