I believe that government does have a compelling interest in promoting the formation of stable families. To explain my thinking, let me first return to the framework of capitalism and citizenship at the foundation of this blog. As I have explained before, I see citizenship and capitalism as the two dominant and indispensable systems structuring American society…
Democracy
Virginia Electoral Vote Plan: Unconstitutional?
The legislature in Virginia is considering changing the way they divide the state’s electoral votes. In case you don’t remember, each state receives EVs equal to their number of U.S. Representatives (proportional by population) and U.S. Senators (2 per state). In most states, those electoral votes go en masse to the winner of the state….
Has the President Read This Blog?
Ok, yes, I know that’s unlikely, especially considering my dearth of posts lately. But after listening to his speech tonight (while proctoring a final exam for my students), I noticed this first part of James Fallows’ assessment: 1) Citizen Obama. The most interesting “new”-ish approach in the speech was the theme that ran through the final one-third…
Religious Freedom and the Executive
A major problem with Santorum’s view of religion in public life is that he fails to differentiate between the rights of individual citizens and the responsibilities of elected officials. Consider this passage from his RealClearReligion op-ed: In contrast, a major political offshoot of Kennedy’s articulated philosophy, sometimes referred to as the “privatization of faith,” was…
The Purpose of Education in a Democratic Society
I think it is fair to say that the educational system in the United States faces an existential crisis. From the university level on down it, the expense continues to increase without producing recognizably better outcomes. The United States continues to lag behind other nations in student performance while our system of higher education (once…
Democracy and Technocrats II
As promised earlier, here are my main concerns with technocratic government, from the new governments in Greece and Italy to the emergency city managers cropping up in the United States. To begin with I would actually like to set aside one argument: that technocrats are often associated with autocratic government. There are plenty of historical…
Democracy and Techocrats I
I wrote a bit about the events in Greece when Prime Minister George Papandreou called for a referendum of the European bailout. Since then, Papandreou rescinded his referendum suggested, struck a deal with the opposition to guarantee maintenance of the bailout agreement, and stepped down from his post. In his place, the Greek parliament instituted…
What is Democracy? Arizona Edition
Some recent events in Arizona highlight the difficulty of creating, maintaining, and evaluating a democratic system: 1. Redistricting Fight: The governor (with ratification by 2/3 of the state senate) recently acted to remove the non-partisan head of the independent redistricting commission. While there were some alleged improprieties with the process, the main dispute revolves around…
How Much Democracy?
Democracy, most basically ‘rule by the people,’ is an easy thing to support in principle. But in practice it can be an awfully tricky concept to implement. This post is the first in a series examining the principles of democracy and democratic systems. First, a bit of historical background in preparation for the next piece…
On Greece and Democracy
Should someone hold a referendum on the Greek bailout? A few days ago Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou shocked the world by announcing that his country would hold such a vote. European leaders, who had just concluded a tough negotiation on Greek’s debt, condemned the move. Financial analysts the world over warned of the potentially…