Our Next Form Of Government
What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War … but the end of history as such … That is, the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.
Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man
Fukuyama wrote those words in 1992, with the fall of the Soviet Union fresh and the bounds of Western achievement limitless. Since then there have been many missteps for democracy and its cousin the free market, with the current economic worries coming in at the top of the list. Yet few of us would seriously consider anything else – indeed, few could even conceive of an alternative.1 After all, we always seem to muddle through. Why should the future be any different?
There are a million possible answers to that question, and it’s anyone’s guess which is right (if any). But muddling is hardly something to aim for. And, more importantly, our government hasn’t fundamentally changed in over two centuries. Wouldn’t it be surprising if something better wasn’t out there?2
An Alternative
I don’t much like paying taxes (who does?), but what I really hate is seeing that money misspent. So what if citizens got to choose where their tax dollars went? And I don’t mean how it is now, with this quasi-representational democracy. I mean each and every dollar earmarked for a specific purpose. You could pay a dollar of your taxes and have it be used only for scientific research and education, or only for infrastructure and immigration. The money would go directly to the agencies responsible for the tasks, and you could pay only for whatever you personally deemed most important.
Obviously some government domains are important and universal enough that they should have some guaranteed revenue. For example, maybe everyone would send at least 5% of their tax bill to defense. And some people might not care – they could just spend it in all domains equally, or according to some default arrangement. (But I bet most people would leap at the chance to better control where their dollars went.) And some people might want to zoom in past the broad categories, spending on scientific research but NOT stem cell research, for example.
You of course would also need some type of overarching administrative body, perhaps similar to a dramatically scaled back version of our current legislature. They would handle the mechanics of collecting tax money and other non-domain-specific issues (such as tax rates, creating new agencies, emergency revenue needs, etc.).
Pros and Cons
The biggest attraction is tightening the leash from tax payers’ wallets to their government. No end of pain has come from democratic governments misinterpreting and debasing the wills of their citizens. If a government agency is ineffective, it won’t have a budget. End of story. Maybe even people could create bids to replace agencies that are doing poorly.
The biggest drawback seems to be introducing an unhealthy degree of focus on marketing and salesmanship into the government. Each agency will be wooing the taxpayer directly, even more than they already do today. But is this even a true con? Aggressive marketing sharpens companies visions, and holds them accountable when they can’t keep promises. I think the same would hold true for government agencies.
Will This Ever Happen?
Not likely. But it seems like a good dream. And, according to Thomas Jefferson, we’re long overdue for a revolution.