I was a
little shocked by the question. Especially since we had been through
many of the same leadership courses, so I expected him to know the
answer. I can't remember how I responded, but the fact is that
centralized power is micro-managing. That is why decentralization and
delegation are essential to leadership, especially in government.
The
Danger
Think
about what your job would be like if you had to get your bosses
approval for every decision you made. Your place of business would
collapse if it operated like that. The same goes for the whole
economy. The more regulation and micro-managing we get from our
leaders, the more the economy will slow down, until it collapses on
itself.
The
Rule
“Every
problem should be handled by the smallest level of government
possible.” This is the principle that my mentor taught me four
years ago. Last night, I got to visit him and talk about politics
(our favorite topic). Sure enough this principle came up again, and
we spent a good amount of time talking about it.
In
today's political arena, it seems that the exact opposite happens.
When someone has a problem, too often they want the federal
government to fix it. However, there are more immediate institutions
that can solve the problem. Even private institutions. This wastes
time and resources for the federal government, and cheapens the
smaller levels of government.
What
are the levels?
The Tenth
Amendment states “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.”
So right
here we are looking at three levels of government. First there is the
federal government, which is established by the Constitution. Second
is the state government. Finally there is the people. There are many
other levels not mentioned here, like county and town governments,
but the people have the greatest degree of power. Each individual is
a sovereign entity, responsible for himself and his possessions.
Some
individuals are part of a family unit. While the family isn't an
official level of government, it is nonetheless an essential
component of civilization. Families and individuals ban together to
form towns/communities, which ought to be the strongest form of
official government. The farther up the levels of government you go,
the weaker and less involved they should be.
Our
nation used to operate like this. So much so, that the federal
government wasn't even thought about by most people. Instead, today
we need to spend a lot of time and energy on federal politics,
because all the power is concentrated there.
Solving
a Problem
When you
have a problem, the first level of government that you ought to turn
to is yourself. Can you solve the problem yourself? Self-sufficiency
is important for both a free society and for personal growth. If you
cannot solve the problem yourself, turn to your family, or some
similar small support group. If your family cannot solve the problem,
then move to your local government, and from there you can move up
the levels of government if necessary.
Decentralizing helps you to
keep as much freedom as possible, and prevents higher levels of
government from being over-burdened with too many responsibilities.
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