I found my subconscious meandering on a path of its own while reading this weeks reading, at one point it was strolling along a path of revolution, wondering if the abolishment of the Executive Branch of the U.S. would be for the greater good, really what does the President and His Posse do anyways... Think about it...
While my mind was strolling in a secret service free utopia calculating the tax $$$ that could be saved by not having to pay for an executive branch and Air Force One, not to mention how nice it would be not having to deal with the insanity of a Presidential campaign every four years (campaigning doesn't really ever stop now thanks to fox), and how the senate pro temp and speaker of the house could have keys to nukes and all would be well my subconscious stopped upon the line, " No government, at the time appearing in the world, nor is perhaps to be found in the records of any history which subsisted without the mixture of some arbitrary authority.... whether human society could ever arrive at the state of of perfection as to support itself with no other control , than the general and rigid maims of law and equity." (172)
I wonder if that state of perfection has arrived in the last 200+ years. Perhaps all the insanity at play in the world is not because people are crazy, but because people are sick of an intrusive government telling them how to live their lives. Perhaps its time to move to the step of revolution in the form of minimizing the amount of government @ play... abolish the executive branch. If we can survive with out them perhaps we could abolish the legislative branch next. Perhaps my meandering mind wasn't to far off track...
The original reasoning for the three branch system of the U.S. government, was to provide checks and balances. Well, I am not hinting that there is no corruption because of this. I can without a doubt agree that such a system does promote a balanced government.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time you are correct this comes at a huge costs. Many feel that this amount of government is a pure waste. Often many from European countries with differing government structures like to point out how much longer are political decisions take to get made because of this.
I am not so sure though, that by taking out one branch of government at a time, this would also come at a cost. Imagine a U.S. government with only a judicial branch, as we in this hypothetical situation threw the other two down the toilet during in the process of slimming down our government. Incentives change! I feel that with each check of the government against the government we throw out the remaining branches have an increased opportunities and incentive to dabble in corruption.
Perhaps this is a bit blunt, but I feel that the American populous would be afraid of such changes. Yes, anarchy is cheap, but only in accounting costs of dollars and cents there are many opportunity costs in a system without authority (transaction costs would in fact probably increase). No presidential campaigns it's a nice thought though (If it wouldn't destroy so many jobs ;-).
Lacey, I think you are on the right tack. After we throw out the executive branch and legislative branch lets throw out the juridical branch too. Then we can have the sweet bliss of anarchy and we can use our gold and silver as money.
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