Limited Government

In political campaigns, candidates are always talking about the size of government.  Some say more government, others say less. Some say smart government, and others say no government at all.  As Conservatives, we often claim to be for “small” or “limited” government.  But what do these terms mean?  When Conservatives say “small government”, what we really mean is “small enough to fulfill the core responsibilities of the government, at the proper level, without infringing on personal liberty.”  It is just easier to say “small government” because our government has strayed so incredibly far from those bare necessities upon which our nation was founded.  As Conservatives, we believe that government does indeed have a purpose, but that purpose is specific, defined, and delegated to different levels so that no single area becomes too powerful.  

What exactly should a government do?  A short answer would be: as little as possible.  Contrary to what some might think, this statement does not imply that conservatism promotes anarchy.  What it does imply is that there is a proper level of government.  Any more or any less will lead to undesirable results.  An intricate balance must be struck between the power of the government and the liberty of the people.  To achieve this goal, one must first understand the core functions of a government.

First on this list would be the protection of the citizens from external and internal threats.  Without this function, the people of the nation would be vulnerable to invasion from foreign nations or harm from fellow citizens.  Another protection required by a government is the protection of personal rights.  Without liberty, the safety obtained by the first protection would be in vain. A third function protects the right of individuals to pursue their own interests and keep what is rightfully theirs.  A man can have security from harm and be free to do as he pleases, but those protections are pointless without the ability to keep and own personal property.  

These three core protections are what Thomas Jefferson referenced when he stated, in the Declaration of Independence, that among the God-given rights were “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  He understood that if the government could not make sure that humans were free to enjoy their God-given rights, any additional privilege or service provided by government would be futile.  But these three protections are not the only duties of government.   In the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, the Framers listed six specific reasons for why the new government was being established.  Three of the reasons correspond with the three God-given rights listed in the Declaration. The other three reasons are: establishing justice, forming a more perfect union, and promoting the general welfare.  

Establishing justice is vital for a government to effectively govern the citizens of a nation.  In a world where the person with the most firepower usually wins, a government is required to provide a standard of law.  For this purpose, our government is broken into three distinct pieces, the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary.  While each branch has its own roles and protections from the other branches, they all play a part in the establishment of justice.  The Legislative branch is meant to form the law that will provide safety and protect liberty.  The Judicial branch is meant to determine when such laws have been broken, as well as what the results of such actions would be.  The Executive branch is meant to enforce the law and carry out punishments when necessary.  

The term “promote the general welfare” has been misused and abused throughout the years. To look at it through the eyes of our nation’s Founders and Framers, promoting the general welfare was intended to be understood as a basic responsibility of government.  But these men would not have seen any type of socialistic reliance on government as part of that responsibility, so the phrase cannot possibly mean what the current societal interpretation tends to be.  In reality, the only other bare-minimum responsibility of government beyond protection of God-given rights and justice would be to promote those actions on the part of citizens that would have a beneficial impact on the rest of the nation.  

The key word, promote, does not imply that the government can insure any type of welfare for mankind, but that it can support the efforts of the private sector that can potentially improve society and the nation as a whole. The Erie Canal, for example, drastically improved the lives of many Americans that lived inland from the East Coast.  It was spurred by the innovations of the private sector, supported by the state government of New York, and eventually used by citizens and businesses to improve the quality of life in America.  While a canal could have been built by the private sector alone, the state government was able to fulfill its role by supporting the effort to benefit countless numbers of citizens.

In the previous example, a reference was made to the government of a state, New York, and the type of infrastructure work that traditionally falls on the state government.  As the very first reason that the Framers gave for adopting the Constitution, they meant to “form a more perfect Union.”  This meant that the states were to keep their sovereignty and become united under the principle of federalism.  The term gets its name from the original dispute that ended with our Constitution.  Back then, they weren’t debating whether or not the states had rights, but whether or not the states’ rights overpowered federal law.  

While this issue wasn’t officially settled until after the Civil War, the term federalism came to be known as the support of a federal government that had authority over the states, but not interfering with what those roles meant for state or local governments.  The 10th Amendment to the Constitution supported federalism by saying, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The same parallel can be carried to the states. The state-level governments have power, but the municipal government still has specific roles that should not be absorbed by the state.  Federalism today, in the words of former Senator Fred Thompson, basically asks, “Is this something government should be doing? If so, at what level of government?”

Governments are created by the people of a nation to serve them, not the other way around.  If a government does not meet the bare-minimum responsibilities, or if it infringes upon God-given rights rather than protecting them, then the only solution is to change that government.  Luckily for us, our nation provides the capability to change government by voting and/or running for office.  Through these means, Conservatives believe that our government can be restored to a focus on the core responsibilities, rather than continue on the path of a despotic, debt-ridden welfare-state that can only end as all other tyrannies eventually do. 

• Conservatism In A Nutshell: Introduction
• Conservatism In A Nutshell: Part 1
• Conservatism In A Nutshell: Part 2