The power of governments’ collective actions for the common good is a myth
People are sometimes tempted to trust the government’s coercive, collective powers to improve society. After all, there is strength in numbers. Size matters. These statements can be true in times of war or in football games, but the centralization of government is rarely a winning formula for its citizens. Jefferson understood that the states agreed to cooperate in a union without sacrificing their sovereignty, independence, or freedom. In 1811, during a time when the federal government was trying to violate the Constitution and the rights of newspapers to publish ideas adversarial to it—through The Sedition Act —Jefferson wrote, “Seventeen distinct states, amalgamated into one as to their foreign concerns, but single and independent as to their internal administration.” It sounds almost naïve today. Though often reluctant to credit the origin of his ideas to Western heritage or religion, Jefferson’s view of the subsidiary role of the federal government can be found today in the Catholic teaching of subsidiarity.
The basic idea of subsidiarity is that nothing should be done by a large and more complex organization if it can be effectively done instead by a smaller and simpler organization. Subsidiarity is thus central to the American ideals of a limited government and personal freedom. Yes, the separation of powers is a genius design, but it is insufficient alone as a check on federal power. Federalism plays a critical role in limiting the collective power of the federal government while also strengthening the power of the citizen and the power of the local spheres of influence in society. In his 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II wrote about how the welfare state contradicted the principle of subsidiarity by intervening directly and depriving society and local institutions of its responsibility and desire to help. He wrote, “this leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending.”
It has been 33 years since Pope John Paul II warned us. Today, the number of federal government agencies has ballooned to 438—with another 260 executive sub-agencies, 66 independent agencies, and 42 boards, commissions, and committees. There are more than 3 million federal government employees. In total, there are 23.5 million government employees in America, representing 17.5 percent of the total number of working citizens, which now stands at 134 million. To be blunt, government growth is exponential and We The People have lost control of much of it. It’s not the representative republic the founders wanted. It is the government about which they warned us.
So, what are we to do? If we pay all of these taxes and our government is incapable of doing the real work to improve lives, or to even produce measurable improvements in human flourishing, where do we turn? Rather than relying on the federal government or pinning our hopes on elected officials, what if we turned our focus to the private institutions of families, churches, businesses, and charitable organizations? Perhaps the answer is in voluntary associations and personal, local relationships? Instead of giving money to politicians, give it to your local nonprofit or house of worship. Forgo two hours of cable news for two hours of community service. Invest in personal relationships where the giver and recipient are mutually accountable to each other for outcomes.
And if you have the wealth to make large gifts to well-functioning charities, do more of it. If you have the experience and knowledge garnered through a successful career in the free market, then volunteer to serve on the board of your favorite nonprofit. They need you. And you need them.
Philanthropy plays a big role in solving some of our most challenging societal problems. As our governments prove less and less capable of improving civil society, philanthropy will play a bigger role in solving problems big and small in America. Philanthropists have founded and funded some amazing foundations. The best of these foundations are the ones that still carry the entrepreneurial flame of the founder. When men and women earn a fortune through the free market, they bring their lessons learned to their foundations — lessons of innovation, competition, and frugality. They bring the lesson of relentless focus on a powerful idea with the best team they can assemble to execute that idea. These organizations — along with the nonprofits they fund—are the keys to defeating the myth that the collective power of government is always the most effective problem solver. If you want to understand why private foundations and nonprofits are essential for a highly functioning republic, consider that there were zero private foundations in the Soviet Union. There is power in the collective, but we assume that the government will harness that power for maximum good at our own peril.
Jon Pritchett has over 30 years of experience in business and public policy organizations, where he has held a variety of executive leadership and senior management positions. He currently works for the Becket, a non-profit, public-interest legal and educational institute with a mission to protect the free expression of all faiths.
