I guess my view would be that in theory, but less often in practice, government's power and legitimacy comes from the people. Government is supposed to exercise its power to ensure that the collective will of society is reflected in its laws and regulations, to ensure that every person’s rights are balanced by each person's responsibility to exercise those rights without impinging on the rights of others.
While governments, like any concentration of economic and social power (e.g. corporations, trade unions, political parties, churches, Homeowners Associations, etc.) are prone to abuse power, in the absence of government you have Somalia or any of a dozen war torn areas in today’s world. Try talking to people who live there; see if they are happy without having a government or independent courts that enforce laws.
Anarchy is the ultimate expression of might makes right. The abolition of all laws restricting the behavior of individuals leads to no formal way for a society to protect individuals and their families from theft, murder, pedophilia, etc. Everything becomes fair game to those able to gather power and exercise the most violence towards their neighbors. Equally, with no independent courts, property rights can’t be enforced, meaning what’s yours is mine if my gun’s bigger. In every case where governments fall, it is the most vulnerable, children, the poor, the workers, who get screwed while the most violent and amoral warlords rise to the top, as ISIS did on the power vacuums in the middle east.
I’ve worked in most African countries, and several ones in South and West Asia. With weak courts and weak governments, land and property get confiscated all the time. If you think the USA, Canada, or Europe are as bad, you need to do more than visit poorer countries, you need to live there and actually talk to those trying to make a living and trying to protect their families. North Americans and Europeans have so many liberties and freedoms (and wealth) compared to the rest of the world, and yet they whine constantly about not being able to do whatever they want whenever they want. We have political parties. Imperfect, certainly idiotic at times, but if you don’t like the leaders, you can vote or even run for office. If you are too lazy/apathetic to get involved, the fault for poor government is yours.
Equally, nothing undermines the answerability of nominally ‘democratic’ governments to its citizens more than the population’s apathy and/or fear in the face of growing totalitarianism. Police, trade unionists, petty bureaucrats, CEOs, anyone with authority can abuse power. Democracy is a participatory sport; you need to work for it to keep it. Independent courts, free speech, an investigate press, vibrant opposition parties, and the unfettered rights of all citizens to organize and vote are absolutely essential for holding political leaders and government agencies accountable. In their absence, the slide to a dictatorship is all too easy, as my grandparents found out when the Nazi’s marched in.