If you Google principles of government you will see the seven basic principles of the U. S. Constitution; popular sovereignty, limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, republicanism and individual rights; the fundamental principles of American government. They undergird, are the foundation for, the successful operation of the principles of government addressed on this site. Their focus is on the structure of government, the architecture, and they outline the operating principles – how our government is supposed to conduct its business, and the interrelationship between the various branches and how they function with each other. The rational for the specific structure of the elements of our government is outlined in our Founding Documents, including the Federalist Papers. This website’s principles take these fundamental principles as a given, at least in an aspirational sense. It is focused more on the required underlying cultural and institutional conditions necessary for successful government, and the results – what the government actually does in practice, what is its product, how can it do better and what are the greatest threats to it.
Good government is government that encourages human flourishing and creates the conditions that maximize the opportunities for its citizens to lead worthwhile lives.
What does good government NOT do?
1) Fail to provide for the common defense
2) Fail to keep order
3) Fail to provide and enforce a fair and reasonable legal system
4) Fail to properly educate its children – this does not mean the federal government should have a predominant role in education
5) Mismanage its fiscal affairs so badly as to produce a crisis
6) Debase its money
7) Manage a financial meltdown (liquidity crisis) produced by a loss of confidence in the financial system so poorly that confidence collapses to the point of threatening both democracy and capitalism.
8) In attempting to help the less fortunate, enact policies that encourage large numbers of its citizens to become overly dependent on government and less responsible for themselves and their families – less self-reliant
What are the greatest INTERNAL THREATS to an established and successful democratic government?
1) Inflation and financial ruin resulting from failure to manage its fiscal affairs
a) Spending consistently more than it takes in on the primary budget so the compounding debt service eventually causes a collapse of confidence in the currency
b) Improper budget policy. Failure to properly account for long term obligations, usually to individuals through transfer payments – pensions, long term medical coverage guarantees, welfare, etc.
2) Failure to maintain a fair and sound legal system
3) Politically designed social policy that:
a) Causes ever increasing and eventually unsustainable pressures on the budget
b) Diminishes self-reliance and increases irresponsibility and dependency
4) A weakening of the morals and stigmas by which society protects itself. The Supreme Court has been a major culprit here by departing from the principles of the original Constitution.
5) Special interest groups and/or institutions and aggregations thereof gaining too much political power. Public employee unions’ powerful political leverage leads invariably to serious budget problems.
6) Dominance of educational systems and/or mass media by a single and flawed ideological/political viewpoint
7) Excessive centralization of administration in the national government and growth of the regulatory state. One of the most pernicious trends here is our federal government’s increasing tendency to micromanage states’ affairs by mandating a multiplicity of activities that states must perform or comply with to receive federal grants.