The Policy Ratchet Effect

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Tuesday, September 28. 2010

The Policy Ratchet Effect

It's been going on for many years, at least since Teddy Roosevelt: While the Left claims to want bipartisanship and compromise, the incremental clicks of the ratchet only go in one direction: toward European-style social democracy.

That's what William F. Buckley Jr. meant by "A Conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling 'Stop!'"

The fatal flaw of democratic systems, of course, is that people figure out they can vote themselves things. The US wasn't planned that way, but it's become that way. Progressives call it Progress.

Posted by The Barrister in Our Essays, Politics at 12:36 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

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Isn't this sort of the opposite of what was presented in the Fiscal Cons v Social Cons link?

#1 DrTorch on 2010-09-28 12:51 (Reply)

"The fatal flaw of democratic systems, of course, is that people figure out they can vote themselves things."
More precisely, democracies thrive only when the majority not only refuse to dictate to the minority (or to steal from them, which is what "voting yourselves things" is all about) but also commit to passing that ethos on to their children.

The latter point is, in some ways, the fundamental problem (which is nevertheless not insurmountable) for democratic libertarians.

The current malaise, which (I fear) may prove terminal, of the USA is that the majority has lost sight of these facts.

The situation in the UK (where I live) is a little different and in someways is more amenable to correction. Here democracy has been hijacked by a small political class who happily pretend to divide on party lines. There is, therefore, little to perpetuate - and that situation is much easier to remedy.

#2 Clovis Sangrail on 2010-09-28 16:31 (Reply)

If Congress would legislate only in line with the Constitution, the people could not "vote themselves things" because the Constitution only gives the federal government certain responsibilities. It would help a lot if voters would only vote for candidates who then follow the Constitution.
There is a role for government and the borders of that role are fuzzy. The Constitution does not allow the federal government to spend money or have authority over education or welfare or health care, except those limited areas like the military academies and health care for veterans or merchant sailors maybe.
The environment seems like a legitimate area for federal concern-- everyone does live downwind and downstream.

#3 Geoff Brown on 2010-09-29 09:06 (Reply)

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Tuesday, September 28. 2010

The Policy Ratchet Effect