In government, Plato's non-Pagan mystical aspect reasserts itself, as any vestige of egoism is dispensed with. This theory of politics follows quite naturally from Plato's epistemological considerations. Furthermore, because Plato's metaphysics dictates that particular physical objects are somehow less real than forms, an individual man is not as real as the form of man. Hence, the emphasis on the collective over the individual. Ayn Rand's politics is the consistent application of the principle of individualism to social concerns.
Government exists only for the protection of individual rights.
The best expression of this principle is a system of laissez-fairre capitalism, in which all private property is owned, as against Plato's communism. Laissez-faire is not the same as social Darwinism. Some in society may be strong, and some may be weak, but they are all individuals, and none are justified in ruling over the others. According to Ayn Rand, laissez-faire capitalism is entirely possible to achieve, in its purest form, although no such system has ever existed completely in history. The difference between Plato's and Ayn Rand's esthetic theories stems directly from the difference in their metaphysics and epistemology.