Posted by
Andrews on Saturday, April 12, 2008 1:05:54 AM
This is not really an essay so much as notes for a future essay.
I was siting around, thinking about what I was going to write later, when I came up with a few simple rules that seem to define exactly what a good government should be. I don't have the energy to write the full essay tonight, but I figured I should probably write them down so I don't forget them.
As I was writing them anyway, I decided to share them with my readers.
Now, this is hardly a complete essay, I won't begin to claim it is as comprehensive as my essays usually are. For now I am just providing my simple rules along with a few comments. The more elaborate analysis will come later.
But that is more than enough introduction. Here are my simple rules for governing.
1. Practice makes perfect - This is one of the two principles behind my belief in federalism. The more attempts we make at something, the more likely one will turn out to be right. Or, to put it another way, if we have many different little governments, odds are good that one of them will find a way to do things better, while having only one central government means we are much less likely to stumble upon any improvements.
2. The smaller the better - This is the other principle behind my federalist beliefs. The fewer people any unit of government represents, the more responsive it is, and the more likely it is to represent the actual interests of those it governs. So, to take advantage of this, I would like to see as much power as possible given to the smallest possible unit of government. Of course, taken to the logical conclusion, this would mean giving as much power as possible to the individual, and I favor that too. Whenever possible, decisions should be left to the individual, when that is not possible, the power should go to the locality first, then the state, and only as a last resort to the federal government.
3. The right tool for the right job - This rule is my way of expressing my disagreement with the adage "that government is best which governs least" or the idea that government is a necessary evil. Government is not evil, it is a tool, like any other. And like any tool, it is suitable for some jobs and not others. It should be our goal to use the state only for those tasks for which it is suitable. The remaining rules are simply extrapolations upon this general principle.
4. Don't worry about me - I use these words to describe a limitation we should place on government, but rarely do. The state does have a role in protecting the individual, but only from outside aggression. The state does not have any business protecting people from themselves. There is no need for laws to keep people form making bad decisions, it is the right of any individual to make decisions with which no one else agrees.
5. I'll do it myself - This rule should be observed whenever we must decide whether or not the state should undertake a specific action. If something can be done privately, whether saving for retirement or deciding whether a doctor is competent or not, we should always favor allowing the individual to do it rather than the state.
6. None of your business - Individuals should be free to interact any way they wish without the state being involved. Sometimes this may displease one or more, and some may have their feelings hurt or their wishes thwarted, but that still doesn't mean the state should be involved. Basically, unless there is a violation of rights, or some extremely compelling state interest, the state should simply stay out of it.
7. Out of my way - If we observed all the other rules, this would be superfluous. But as we already have some very bad laws, and as we won't always make the right decisions, I added this one. My thought was, whenever we have a choice what to do, it almost always favors the individual and society as a whole, for us to have less state involvement rather than more. More often than not, the best thing the state can do is get out of the way.
I realize my principles are not the most profound political theory ever devised, but I do think they establish some pretty simple guidelines to follow in political decisions.
Of course, they are only notes, so I suppose I should not decide on their merit before I write the essay itself. After that I can decide how useful they really are.