Politics is based around the interaction of different groups of people, both within their own group and with others.
Groups are formed and empowered by individuals identifying either with their ideals or through common practice, be it political, religious, work, charity, music; whatever.
Focusing on governments:
The government sets laws and represents its citizens on an international level. It is important to recognize that citizens affiliate themselves with more groups than just the government, and that not everyone is adequately represented by the political choices available to them.
Ideally, government should provide adequate representation to all groups, and there are tangible signs of governments moving towards this; the idea of basic human rights. However, most of these rights are negative or preventative rights, meaning you have the right for something not to happen to you, like being killed, or stolen from.
In some countries, you also have positive rights, like the right to have some degree of basic education, or health care, religious freedom, travel, etc.
We typically consider an effective government to be one that prevents or mitigates disaster, i.e. upholds the negative rights, and then usually provides assistance in times of natural disaster or national crisis.
The best governments will be the ones that go beyond this and create the most positive rights for not only its citizens, but the citizens of the world, in a harmonious yet effective fashion. It will be achieved through intelligent use and deployment of economic systems.
An individual can exist outside of the confines of society, but you can never have a society that exists without individuals. In order to create value in the society, you must create value in the lives of the individuals who exist therein. Enabling citizens within your countries to achieve is without a doubt the best way to ensure success.