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New Orleans: Negative government
Monday, September 05, 2005 For years, we have been laboring under the notion of "negative government". This tendency toward laissez faire runs deep in American history. It basically holds that free enterprise and the supremacy of individual freedom are the great regulators of economic affairs. Government should not interfere. (Brown University President Francis Wayland, writing in 1837, even attacked the notion that poor laws were justified. They presupposed that "the rich are under obligation to support the poor." From Laissez Faire and the General Welfrare State.) There's only one problem with this approach to political philosophy: Taken to extreme, it offends our moral sensibilities. Our sense of obligations to each other confuse the Jeffersonian message that "government is best which governs least". We saw what happens with the collapse of government last week in New Orleans. The poor, the infirm, the young and helpless were all left to fend for themselves against the fearsome aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. From 1865 to about 1900, laissez faire emerged as the dominant political philosophy of the day. But laissez faire -- the doctrine of negative government -- provided no guidance to the unintended consequences of industrialization: child labor, unsanitary food, price fixing, polluted air, unsafe drinking water. The list goes on. So the Progressive Era emerged to try to right the balance. Pragmatism emerged as a political doctrine. During the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt personified this approach to governing. "It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something." During the Johnson years, progressive politics found a new voice: The New Left. Government became the solution to many of the ills we saw around us, from inadequate voting rights to poverty and environmental degradation. The New Left touched off a counter movement: a Neoconservative revolt. Over the past twenty years or so, we have swung back to a more laissez fair approach to governing. Reagan's Supply Side economics reformed the contours of our national politics. It ushered in the latest era of Negative Government. In many ways, Reagan's conservative politics were an appropriate response to the excesses of New Left thinking. (An excellent background to all this comes in the insightful book Why Americans Hate Politics by E.J. Dionne.) Minimize government interference became the dogma; economic liberty became the slogan. (Remember the Contract with America?) Economic developers have been able to navigate successfully between ideological extremes -- the kind of extremes that grip official Washington. We are pragmatists. We focus on results. We share attributes from both ideological camps, and we get captured by neither. Unlike the Sixties Left, we understand the power of markets to drive prosperity. We recognize the importance of competitive, innovative businesses to generate good, secure jobs. We are deep capitalists. Unlike the Eighties Right, we recognize that importance of compromising for the public good. We recognize that business may be important, but it is not supreme for a simple reason: business does not command the votes. Business must listen and compromise for a community, a region to move forward. Blow torch politics by either side has little room in our world. I suspect that one possible outcome of the tragedy of Katrina may be a realignment of our national politics. We may be nearing an end to a highly politicized era of Negative Government. We may see a move toward pragmatism without rekindling the excesses of the New Left. A move to the center. A focus on results. A rebirth of civility and understanding. Americans want both a strong sense of individual freedom and a strong sense of community. They also want the decisions about their community to be made openly, so that burdens and benefits can be shared fairly. For over twenty years, political polarization in Washington has robbed us of simple, civil and deliberative processes to resolve disputes, find solutions, discover opportunites, and, most of all, move forward. Ironically, Hurricane Katrina may give us an opportunity for a national political recovery. One can only hope. posted by Ed Morrison | |
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