limited government

limited government

The Importance of Limited Government in a Democratic Society

1. Introduction to Limited Government

With the Cold War over, with economic, political, and human rights stumbling in socialist and totalitarian countries as well as in democracies, there is a unique opportunity, climaxed in our own 200th-anniversary celebration of the Constitution, to reappraise the importance of limited government in a democratic society, with the United States as but one world country. Hopefully, such relationships can be understandingly related by international law. Our domestic military and welfare burdens cause us concern in the 1984-85 fiscal year, as it will next year and for years to come, and the United Nations and our own aid programs totter on the brink of extinction. So does the prospect of government regulation, pronouncements, or decisions affecting individualized freedoms, land use, water and clean air, investment and national energy resources, and environmental protection – costing industry an approximately 30 percent share of our gross national product annually. Overriding all is our federal and central government, the administrator of these welfare and regulatory policies and the most unfriendly landlord of all.

Americans worship freedom and regard our form of government as the best yet devised by man. In all our written history, we have fostered limited government because we have had a sense of the responsibilities of freedom. In the present century, these responsibilities have been imposed upon fewer people as government has grown, in the form of either military government or domestic welfare, far beyond our envisioned limitations. Heavy taxation, inflation, compulsory allocation of goods and services, and regimentation of labor are all restraints upon freedom, imposed by the government in the name of social security. Expanded governmental welfare has taken the place of individualized responsibility in an alleged “war against poverty.” The landed aristocracy of the eighteenth century, the captains of industry of the nineteenth century, and the monarchs of the past are gone. But, increasingly, we have replaced them with the vast feudal system of government bureaucracy.

2. Historical Origins and Philosophical Foundations

Some aspects of the challenge of designing a democratic state are presented in the works of European political theorists. When Jean Louis de Lolme writes, “All men are pleased to see power extend over others, but are impatient of it in their own persons” he makes three points: about power, that it extends over others, and about men. They are desirous of power over others themselves, they are desirous that the power of others be limited, and they think only of the present. In his article, Montesquieu proposes a typology of political societies into three kinds: republic, monarchy, and despotism. As Perry Anderson observes, “The originality of Montesquieu’s classifier was twofold. It invented a generic terminology, and there were not as yet any other classifications of analogous breadth or purpose. It also nominalized what had until then been an exclusively normative tradition of reflection on regimes, taking binary contrasts of legitimacy between republics or monarchies as an absolute rather than a relative principle.”

As a term, democracy is what the political theorist Bernard Manin calls a “portmanteau word.” It defies simple definition because the historical variants of rule by the people have been so many and so various. A system of such rule in which the people were sovereign could be simple – the Greeks of the Classical polis, with direct democracy and with only a limited population – or complex. However structured, someone had to enforce the laws of the people. In a simple system, that someone could be anyone – a citizen, a legislator, a judge – or any set of people. The systems in which that enforcement was most restricted have been the most memorable, and unless the ruling class maintained a neutral and disinterested enforcement, they faced the destruction of the state or the loss of the leadership’s authority.

3. Practical Applications and Benefits

The concerns that led Thomas Jefferson to express his conviction that “that government which governs least governs best” are at least as valid today as they were in his time. Recent comments in debates and studies which distinguish between greater and smaller government demonstrate the continuing interest in and concern for the proper limitations of government in a free society.

The basic principles of limited government are useful in analyzing the current operations of government and in establishing the proper role of government. Just as a healthy economy is made up of many different products and services, a healthy system of government is made up of a proper division of functions. In looking at government and governance from a limited government perspective, the value of the basic principles of limited government becomes clear. They can assure that the ideal is extended rather than replaced. They focus appropriately on the dangers as well as the benefits of unlimited government. They provide serious standards for controlling the use of government power. They help analyze the complexity of proposals and government actions. And, they provide a basis for distinguishing between illegitimate and positive government intervention.

4. Challenges and Criticisms

The debate will continue on the proper and appropriate role of government in a democratic society. The concept of limited government, as outlined in the American political tradition, is not so much an American tradition as much as it is an outgrowth of the basic concept of government which holds that man creates government to secure certain rights that otherwise might not be secured. Since, as the writers of the Federalist noted, men are not angels and indeed have human passions, their control of government must be circumscribed. The future debate on the proper role of government will turn on the extent to which the concept of limited government is held.

All of these criticisms cut against the concept of limited government, and advocates of the concept have been hard put to develop cogent answers to the criticisms. The answer to the first criticism must rely on the belief that the principles underlying the idea of limited government apply at all times and under all conditions. The other five criticisms are more challenging. They are not so much a criticism of the idea of limited government as much as an argument that circumstances have changed so drastically as to render the idea of limited government obsolete. The principal difficulty with these five criticisms is that in each case, they assume that only government action offers relief. Advocates of limited government argue that these five charges point to both government and private action to alleviate the problem.

The idea of limited government has faced a number of challenges and criticisms. The major criticisms leveled against limited government include the following: 1) modern problems arising from industrialization and urbanization require an active role for government; 2) economic and social inequalities require government intervention; 3) expanding needs require government action; 4) government injustice should be countered by more government rather than by limiting government; 5) the changing role of the United States in international affairs requires an active government role; and 6) Americans today believe that the proper objective of government is to secure civil rights.

5. Conclusion: Ensuring the Future of Limited Government

It is important that we all give serious thought to the role that limited government plays in a democratic society. Discussion forums that promote the free exchange of ideas, as exemplified by this and other organizations, are essential to our ability to understand these issues. It is hoped that the criteria for a limited government, the discussion of how one can “measure” a limited government, and the reasons why a firm might wish to consider limited government, presented in this paper, are valuable where limited government is held as an important philosophy. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today.

The idea of limited government is an important cornerstone of our democracy. Much of what makes this nation strong and good, we owe to the power of government constrained from clearly well-intended designs. This paper identifies six questions designed to probe an organization’s philosophical commitment to the concept of limited government. These are but a few examples of the types of questions that can be used to help promote discussion with group members on the topic of limited government.