• TSr Institute’s Downloadable White Papers

The Commonwealthmen

~ Investigating the ideals of small-r republicanism, ideals that move us to reach beyond our shores.

The Commonwealthmen

Tag Archives: centralization of government

TSr Institute’s White Papers

22 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by E.L. Beck in POLITICS, republicanism basics, small-r republicanism

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

american republic, antifederalists, autocratic, big government, centralization, centralization of government, civic engagement, civic responsibility, civic virtue, civil rights, community involvement, complex society, consumer credit, consumer debt, contentment, Corporatism, decentralization, decision making, democracy, democratic republic, economic tyranny, economism, economocracy, equality, Federal government, Federalism, freedom, government business collusion, government corruption, government inefficiency, government ineptness, government mismanagement, household debt, human dignity, human rights, hyperindividualism, independent proprietors, individual responsibility, individualism, institutionalization, liberty, limits of government, local economy, modern society, nanny state, natural rights, paternalistic government, personal responsibility, plutocracy, political tyranny, private property, pursuit of happiness, republicanism, self governance, self regulation, self-employment, small government, small-r republicanism, social capital, sovereignty, the rule of law, TSr Institute, tyranny, wage labor, welfare state

“You may not be able to change the world,

but at least you can embarrass the guilty.”

Jessica Mitford

 

The following TSr (The Small “r”) Institute papers are available on TSr Institute’s Google Drive. The complete URL for this Google Drive folder can be found below.

Simply look for the paper by title in the TSr Institute’s Google Drive folder.

Studying the American Republic: A reading list of original source materials that influenced America’s founders, writings directly from America’s founders, along with newer works that expound on contemporary political and economic conditions. If you’re weary of trying to gain a sense of the American Republic through secondary sources/ideologies and want to pursue an eye-opening intellectual experience, here’s a map laying out the trailhead.

Humans as Commodities (formerly The Dignity of Humanity): Above all else, America’s founders sought to establish the dignity of the individual, with political and economic institutions benefiting the individual, not the converse. Contemporary arguments seek to undermine this ideal of human dignity with the use of ad hominem attacks that discredit the founders and, by association, their ideals. Yet, the dignity of humanity resided at the very core of the American Republic, regardless of the founders’ personal lives. This paper reviews the history of Western thought that led to a negative outlook on the human condition, why it triumphed over the positive outlooks, and how this negativity influenced our society, government and economy along the way. This devolution led to hyperindividualism, paradoxically denying individualism and human dignity.

The American Republic and Its Relevancy in the 21st Century: Far too often we hear contemporary political voices invoking America’s founders and the Founding Era to support their ideologies. An investigation into the original source material of the founders, along with the political philosophers who influenced them, reveals a different vision for America. This paper serves as a brief introduction to small-r republicanism, the original framework for America’s governance, including equality, liberty, sovereignty, civic engagement, decentralization and more. This paper also considers why America devolved from a democratic republic to a mere democracy, and how a republic’s political framework continues to hold potential for addressing many of the social, political and economic issues of our modern, complex society.

Does Centralized Government Work?: This paper is a considered response to the growth of our Federal government, arguing that there is no deterministic reason for large, centralized government in a modern complex society and that, in fact, decentralized government could work better than a massive, unresponsive centralized bureaucracy mired in corruption and agency capture. However, political elements must move beyond simplistic calls for “smaller government.” American citizens taking responsibility for their communities is the starting point.

The Chasm Between the Economy and Finance: This white paper discusses how the disconnect between Wall Street and the U.S. economy emerged, and investigates the precipitous increase in wealth amassing in corporations, hedge funds, and more. As this wealth has increased, finance’s economic -and- political power has grown precipitously over the past three decades, influencing national, state and local governance, as well as the day-to-day functioning of the U.S. economy. The paper ends with a call for returning to substantive finance, one that invests in American business, rather than Wall Street’s current mode of operation, using money to chase money, with little in the way of substantive economic investment.

The Vanishing Middle: Stagnant incomes and rising debt loads eradicated American middle-income wealth over the past 30 years. Here’s why, and a way forward.

A Roadmap to Follow: Japan’s economic woes have reached a 20th anniversary. There are deep lessons to be learned here by Americans, particularly government leaders and policymakers.

Continue reading →

Advertisements

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Small ‘r’ republicanism

26 Monday Jul 2010

Posted by E.L. Beck in BUSINESS, civic engagement, decentralized government, FINANCE, limited government, local economies, POLITICS, republicanism basics, small-r republicanism, Sustainability

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

American industrial revolution, american republic, antifederalists, big government, British industrial revolution, centralization, centralization of government, civic engagement, civic responsibility, civic virtue, civil rights, community involvement, complex society, consumer credit, consumer debt, contentment, Corporatism, decentralization, decision making, democracy, democratic republic, economic tyranny, economism, economocracy, effectiveness, efficiency, equality, Federal government, Federalism, foreign direct investment, free trade, freedom, globalism, government business collusion, government corruption, government inefficiency, government ineptness, government mismanagement, household debt, human dignity, human rights, hyperindividualism, independent political blogs, independent proprietors, individual responsibility, individualism, institutionalization, isolationism, labor markets, liberty, limits of government, local economy, modern society, monopoly, nanny state, nationalism, natural rights, non-partisan political blog, oligarchy, paternalistic government, personal responsibility, political tyranny, private property, profit maximization, pursuit of happiness, republicanism, self governance, self regulation, small government, small-r republicanism, social capital, sovereignty, the rule of law, The TSr Institute, Tocqueville, trade, tyranny, wage labor, welfare state

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

Greek proverb.

 

In a republic, political and economic elements are embedded within a society to serve the betterment of the individual, not the converse. At its birth, the Founders framed America as a democratic republic, not just a democracy, and small-r republicanism places the individual – living within society – to the foreground.

Unfortunately, certain 21st-century voices have embraced an under-informed version of small-r republicanism to represent some sort of ultra-conservative political framework that sends us back to Neanderthal times. What’s being discussed here isn’t an atavistic ideology, but an argument for decentralizing both political and economic institutions to a human scale, one wherein the individual minimizes his or her struggles with hopelessness, feelings of victimization, loss of control, sense of coherence or meaninglessness.

In fact, a thorough reading of original source materials reveals small-r republicanism remains as radical in the 21st century as it was in the 18th century. Sadly, this suggests the state of humanity has evolved but little.

There are also those who are leveraging one of the central tenets of republicanism, decentralization, as an insidious means to promote the deregulation and downsizing of government. Yet, the decentralization of political institutions in a modern, complex society can only be pursued with the simultaneous decentralization of economic institutions, reformed at a human and local scale, better positioned to serve the individual and society. This decentralization makes citizen engagement with political and economic institutions easier and in parallel, expects citizens to engage these institutions for better governance and responsive economic activity.

The organic American form of small-r republicanism:

a) declares all humanity as created equal, in that all possess the same divinely- or naturally-imbued rights, natural in that no external body bestows these liberties on individuals, thus they cannot be arbitrarily revoked;

b) establishes these natural rights as individual liberties, liberties that need citizens to voluntarily uphold through social and civic responsibilities (i.e., public morals), otherwise liberties without responsibilities degenerate into license, which tears asunder the fabric of society;

c) defines sovereign power as resting in the people, since it is the people who possess natural rights and liberties, with the people bestowing limited powers to local, state, and national governments so that these levels of government ensure the functioning of society. Power emanates from the citizenry, laws emanate from the legislatures. No government, corporation or other institution possesses a conscience, thus cannot claim natural rights or a personhood equivalency.

d) realizes that government does not always provide for the good of society, thus establishes not merely a vote, but the need for citizen engagement within the political process to ensure political and economic powers do not tyrannize individual liberties nor corrupt governance. This is why America’s founders included the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution: Its central purpose is to create a free space in society so that citizens can act as a check and balance against the usurpation of powers by government, powers that were never intended for it;

e) positions most governance near the people, which enables civic engagement and does not isolate government in a remote, opaque, centralized institution with increasing arbitrary powers;

f) upholds private property which, when held without debt encumbrances, ensures a citizen’s independence;

g) supports the presence of decentralized free markets with numerous independent proprietors, so that large monopolies or oligarchies operating in corporate- and/or government-controlled centralized markets do not threaten liberties or lives. In fact, largely decentralized capitalism existed for over 300 years before the British (1760-1840) and American (1865-1929) industrial revolutions initiated the great push towards the centralization of economies.

Decentralized economies focus on effectiveness rather than efficiency, a moral choice. Profit maximization is not necessary for capitalism to survive. The health of a country’s economy remains foremost, and this is not the same as practicing isolationism: Local labor produces for local, regional, national and global trade a.k.a., the LOBAL economy: LOcal for the gloBAL. This represents substantive trade, with the actual trading of goods flowing in both directions, not “free trade” as a covert means of finding the lowest-cost labor markets.

h) regulates society by the rule of law, wherein fixed rules provide guidance to citizens, thus assuring neither assertion of arbitrary powers nor lawmakers existing above the law. In addition, the nation maintains a separation of church and state, and the state regulates public – not private – morals. The state cannot compensate for the failures of religious institutions; and

i) values a society where citizens can secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness with contentment, preferable to a hyper-competitive, over-stretched empire that is domestically distraught and globally despised. Military defense is maintained for protection of the nation; it is not funded by citizens/taxpayers via the federal government as a means to carry out economic colonialism machinations for multinational corporations.

For more information on small-r republicanism, see The Small “r” essays on TSr Institute’s Google Drive, and The American Republic white paper in particular.

For a brief introduction to “The Commonwealthmen,” writers who laid the foundations for small-r republicanism during the Enlightenment and later influenced America’s founders, read this Britannica entry.

Full TSr Institute’s Google Drive URL:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B5CA9PQG2_oQfkJqSXVPbUh1WEtYTzRzS3lzUllaWVNnNDFPR3pkaDQ1MU1VWTZ4SG9aOEk

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Basics

  • Commonwealthmen?
  • What is small-r republicanism?
  • White Papers
  • Studying the American Republic
  • Profile
Follow The Commonwealthmen on WordPress.com
  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Search The Commonwealthmen

Translate this page

Archives

  • September 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • January 2017
  • November 2016
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • December 2014
  • March 2014
  • December 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • February 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • July 2010

Blogs & Websites

  • Agricultural and Ecosystems Blog
  • Bacon's Rebellion
  • Bloomberg News
  • Evonomics
  • OpenSecrets.org
  • Pragmatic Capitalism
  • ProPublica
  • Real-World Economic Review
  • Sunlight Foundation
  • The Burning Platform
  • The Intercept
  • WikiLeaks
Advertisements

Blog at WordPress.com.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
%d bloggers like this: