The governments role in anything is to screw it up and make it inefficient.
We may say that public finance as a subject is related to government spending and taxes,But for the role of government it is seen in two main ways. An organic view- Which supports the idea that the society is a natural organism and the government is it's heart.and theMechanistic view- in this view the government is not an organic part of society, But it is a contrivance created by the individuals, to achieve their own goals.