Is government (specifically Democracty) by its nature prone to unstoppable growth? What elements of democracy contribute to its growth? Is there a body of research on this?
Thank you.
The Democratic Leviathan
Introduction to Democracy, The God That Failed by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Eugene: Is government (specifically Democracty) by its nature prone to unstoppable growth? What elements of democracy contribute to its growth? Is there a body of research on this? Thank you.
This is a very important question, and one that I've been ruminating on lately. I haven't yet read Hoppe's "God that failed" but it's very high on my reading queue.
I'll give you my take. Democracy continually becomes more statist (tends towards unstoppable growth, in your terms) because democracy is predicated on what's called the socialist ethic. Which means every democracy is inherently a socialist entity.
The socialist ethic is the idea that the majority, that is the group, is the primary unit of society and should control or rule-over the individual. We have representatives making law, but the mechanism of law making--majority vote / majority rule--is inherently socialist.
The entire republican party, half a country, is engaged in trying to vote in politicians who will limit themselves and their fellow politicians, via a mechanism which makes such limitation nearly impossible.
The reason the state continues to become more statist is because if you want to force any minority to do anything, all you need to do is convince the majority that it would be in their interest. You manipulate the public dissemination of information, create an ideology which accepts the socialist premise, and voila, voters vote for other people's property to be given to them.
This is known as the politics of Bismarck, who invented it back in the 19th century, invented social security, wage laws, government economic controls, socialized health care, and much more. This is otherwise known as modern political methodology.
We had been warned by de Tocqueville that our nation would perish when the majority figured out they could vote largesse to themselves from the minority. Today we are seeing that prediction in abundant force, and the consequent break-down of the republic, from which there is not likely to be an end until it crashes economically.
The thing that was supposed to counteract increasing statism and protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority vote was rule by law and specifically the bill of rights. But the legislators are a living, changing body, constantly chipping away at the static and dead minority rights.
It came in things like the expansion of various clauses in the constitution to base laws on, the commerce clause, the general welfare clause--the idea that these clauses allow what they've been used for, enumerated powers be damned, is a complete fraud. But that is what we have today.
The solution may be to create a society not predicated on socialism but on individualism, to create a society where there are no representatives, but where you represent yourself. Where no one makes laws for you, but where you adopt laws to subject yourself to and group together with others who have likewise adopted similar laws.
In such a society where only voluntary law exists, it would be impossible for anyone to force laws on you, and thus the creep of statism would perhaps be permanently checked.
Such a society has never existed before, however I'm in the midst of building a theory of how it could work and will reveal the particulars in due time.
I just have to say, Anemone, great post!
Is government (specifically Democracty) by its nature prone to unstoppable growth? Yes. Human action demonstrates that humans always act to improve their lot.
What elements of democracy contribute to its growth? Democracy is a system. A system is a set of rules, it doesn't "grow". If you mean "What elements of human nature contribute to human-farmers in a democratic system imposing ever more strict restrictions on, and demanding ever more from, their livestock", Hoppe covers that thoroughly. Basically, the livestock are resources for their farmers, and since the farmers are only temporarily in control of the resources, they have incentive to exploit the resource without expanding or even preserving its future value. This has proved to require rules which continuously increase the power of the farmers at the expense of the livestock.
Democracy is psychologically addictive. People desire power and a direction to life, and democracy provides the illusion of it on a sporadic basis, very similar to a gambling addiction. Most people want to exercise power over others, because resources are not being allocated in an ideal way to them, and they never will be in a free society. People identify themselves by their family, their town, their state, and their country. They want to feel unified with their fellow man, not in constant struggle. We're trying to tell others that they should take on the entire responsibility of their own lives. That's a difficult pill to swallow, hence the proliferation of monarchies and oligarchies in the world today.