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(edited) Report 100%! I think currently one thing I am thankful to big government for (because we're losing it) is regulatory power! I think of all the recent recalls... Government has money and power to allocate funds to things like cancer research that no one person would be able to fund should things be totally private (as though totally private is possible since we're social animals like you said). Without institutions that hold people accountable, we also lose senses of safety, perhaps having more division between our smaller subunits. Even things like standardizing road signs, super important. I was reading something by Kant the other day, and he splits things into public and private domains. The private for him is like your job, and your everyday tasks. So the citizen qua taxpayer just needs to pay their taxes to keep society going. The public citizen (sort of, as a free individual) can criticize to their heart's content. He argues that, the less free the private citizen is, the more free the public citizen can be, "Argue as much as you want, but obey." Now I'm sure his account could (and should) be modified, especially in a non-ideal society where various inequalities are present. But reform isn't the same as lessening government. One thing I'm maybe a bit unsure on, and I guess this is out of the way of government but toward its regulating bodies, things like police, and how they stand in the picture. Thank you for sharing!! |
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YES, and I think this gets at something I was trying to work through while writing it, which is that “big government” versus “small government” is such an inadequate way of talking about power because it collapses really different kinds of state capacity into one thing.
Food and drug regulation, cancer research, standardized road signs, civil rights enforcement, disaster response, and policing are all technically government activity, but they do not relate to our freedom in the same way.
And your Kant point is SO interesting here, especially because his public/private terminology is almost backwards from how we use those words now. (correct me if i'm wrong) The “private” person is basically the person occupying a role inside an institution and carrying out its functions, while the “public” person is the thinking citizen who gets to step outside that role and criticize the whole arrangement. I can see why “argue as much as you want, but obey” could make sense within his theory of gradual enlightenment, although I think that is exactly where our current problem gets really interesting, because what happens when the institutions you are supposed to obey are themselves structured by huge inequalities of power? At what point does the ability to criticize become pretty thin if you have very little ability to materially contest the decision?
And I think that connects directly to your police question too. I definitely do not mean “government power = good,” because coercive government power is part of what I am worried about too. My concern is almost that we are watching different capacities move in opposite directions. The parts of government that regulate corporations, fund things collectively, provide services, enforce labor or civil rights protections, or give ordinary people leverage can be weakened while police, detention, surveillance, immigration enforcement, and executive power remain extremely strong. So we can end up with less government between you and a corporation and more government between you and the state’s coercive power at the exact same time.
Like freedom cannot just mean that government leaves you alone, because private institutions can dominate your life too. I care about whether people have enough actual power to make meaningful decisions for themselves, say no, leave, appeal something, organize with other people, and challenge whoever has authority over them. Sometimes government interferes with that freedom, and sometimes democratic government is the thing that makes that freedom materially possible in the first place.
And YES to “totally private” being kind of impossible for social animals. 😂 Even the most supposedly private economy is sitting on roads, courts, currency, contract enforcement, research, standards, infrastructure, education, public health, etc. We are going to coordinate our lives somehow. The real political question is who gets to make those coordinating decisions and how accountable they are to everyone who has to live with them.
Thanks so much for reading <3
by Kayla⟡; (edited); Report