Society creates government to provide what people need: to protect the common good, maintain order, defend against attack and sustain a stable economy. In doing so, governments are imperfect and disappointing, just like the people who create them. We are greatly disappointed in State and County governments’ handling of the Sonoma Developmental Center, for example, and nationally, there’s a groundswell of disappointment in government that’s fueling layoffs, cutbacks and federal agency elimination.
It’s all too easy to portray government and politicians as inept or corrupt, and Hollywood’s contribution of sensational plots that degrade respect for government has been substantial. It’s not that corruption isn’t real and doesn’t happen, but not everyone in government is in it for themselves.
Government personnel includes two primary components: elected and administrative. Those elected often serve at modest compensation and do so for varying reasons. Some elected truly believe in the value of public service. Others hope to build a political career, steadily moving up the ladder to higher office and accruing influence and power. Yet others think it will be fun and enjoy the public attention. And yes, there are those who see serving in office as a way to make connections and get rich. Citizen’s United, the Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited financial contributions from corporations and “dark” money into campaign coffers has added an unwelcome element of corruption.
Those who serve in government in a paid administrative or staff capacity are what we call bureaucrats. They are the people who make the machine of government run, from those at the management level right on down to the people who fill the potholes. For these folks, government is a job, and sometimes a career. For many, there is an undeniable element of public service, but there is also an element of self-interest, as there is for any employee.
Governments can fail at many levels. Those elected can make poor decisions about budgets and legislation, passing poorly crafted laws or regulations that make matters worse rather than improving them. Take California’s crazy quilt of housing legislation, for example. Bureaucrats can fail by being poor managers, not properly safeguarding the public’s money and wasting it, operating government in a sloppy manner, or letting their self-interest subordinate the public interest. The government is made up of people, after all, and people screw up all the time.
Suspicion and anger directed at government are at an all-time high, sometimes justifiably, despite the fact that there is no alternative. There are far too many of us to do without government, and society is too dependent upon systems of administration to do without it safely. The FDA, EPA, OSHA, FEMA and the rest of the apparatus of government, as burdensome and problematic as they sometimes are, nonetheless protect us from harm. Early 20th century muckrakers like Upton Sinclair helped illustrate the need for government intervention; when unregulated, greedy businesses breed harm and the public needs protection from being callously poisoned, defrauded, injured or killed. Some libertarians pejoratively call this style of government the “Nanny State,” but we see it as necessary.
The libertarian effort to starve America’s federal government until it can be “drowned in a bathtub” has been misguided from its very beginning. It belies the fact that 350 million people require systems of government to survive. The alternative is chaos and anarchy.
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