What kind of government do we have? Upon leaving the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked whether Americans had a monarchy or republic. "A republic," responded the grand old revolutionary, "if you can keep it."
Democracy was not even on the table. And yet quite quickly democracy increased, as more men obtained land, and then as other extensions of the franchise were put into law, decade by decade. But this progress of voting rights notwithstanding, it is quite clear that democracy strictly defined was not what the founders were up to.
So I have not been surprised to receive quite a few lectures from readers of these columns ? and of my free Common Sense e-letter ? on the nature of our republican government. My advocacy of further democracy, of initiative and referenda for both statutory and constitutional reform in every state of the union, couldn't help but spark controversy. "America is not now and never was a democracy," I'm repeatedly told.
I wish that were true, in a sense. I wish that we lived in a republic as imagined by the best of our founders. But Ben Franklin's great aphorism was a warning as well as a statement. And it is apparent that Americans have not heeded the warning. We have not kept our republic.
Not that keeping a republic is easy. Franklin's co-conspirator, Thomas Jefferson, explained: "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."
As it is
So what do we have?
Not a democracy, for the betrayal of campaign promises goes on year after year and district after district without much comment.
And not quite a republic, either. The old idea of checks on government growth, and balances of power, have fallen by the wayside.
Both houses of Congress have ceded leadership to the executive, not only in matters of peace ? it has been over sixty years since Congress did its duty and actually declared war, though dozens of wars have been fought ? but in matters of domestic policy, too: regularly they blame every legislative tangle on a lack of leadership from the White House.
And in collusion with the executive branch ? which has grown with an ever-increasing bureaucracy ? Congress manages to increase spending year after year, on projects both noble and idiotic, with no discrimination. Rarely does it review a program and abolish it. Layers of government and bureaucracy just add on, ad infinitum.
The failure of republicanism in general can be seen best by the failure of the party named after the idea. Despite the best efforts of a few men and women who went to Washington and didn't catch the fever, government has continued to grow. Today's united (that is, Republican-controlled) government is increasing both federal spending and debt at an alarmingly advanced rate, making the divided government of the '90s look almost like utopia.
I often define the problem in class or caste terms: through the power of their incumbency, our representatives set themselves apart, nurturing their own interests at the expense of the public, all the while, of course, mouthing the pieties of limited government and the public interest.
But one could also define the problem as Ben Franklin himself did, in terms of corruption:
[T]here is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well administered; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a Course of Years, and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other.
Are you tempted to agree? Don't we live in corrupt times? Our government is increasingly burdensome and despotic. The people, we're told, yearn for more.
But the evidence doesn't quite bear this out. The people, when voting in initiative and referenda in those states and communities blessed with the institution, tend to be far more frugal and freedom-minded than their politicians. It is the political class that is corrupt, not the people themselves. At least by comparison.
This is one reason why I place some hope in greater democracy. We cannot trust politicians or the dominant political parties. So the people themselves remain our only hope to restore limits to government, a return to common sense.
"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone," wrote Mr. Jefferson. "The people themselves are its only safe depositories."
Three first steps
Three democratic reforms provide the first steps to returning our government to its Constitutional, republican roots:
- Term limits at local, state, and federal levels, for all elected executives and representatives.
- The right to initiative and referendum by citizens in every state and locality, for Constitutional as well as statutory enactment and repeal.
- Require a vote of the people for tax increases and borrowing money.
Each of these proposals strengthen the fabric of the republic, while also embracing "democracy" ? or perhaps, more correctly, greater democratic control over government. Continued... |