Exam 5 Democracy Politics and Government The evolution of Big Government o The development of public control over the private sector the growth of Big Government 1887 1937 50 year period initial and development of Regulatory State This period late 19th century early 20th century progressive era was marked as the decline of Laissez faire leave it alone hands off Let business do whatever it wants for the economy as public philosophy started control over private corporations ICC 1887 created federal government s assumption of regulatory role in political economy Railroad regulation prices for farmers It looked like what government had been doing up to that point Delivering Handling Imposing costs on foreign business Protecting the US citizen It was non problematic even though a bit different from original actions To regulate a specific industry engaged in a concrete behavior Now other people were presenting their views So government began regulating because citizens asked for it Porn magazines healthy foods That s when we started sliding When we addressed philosophical values Subsequent broadened application to industry in general and to abstract behaviors good Food and Drug Administration The more it regulated the more people became troubled by government crossing the line Ultimate result regulation in the extreme Lack of expertise reliance on industrial input Who knows more about meatpacking than meatpackers Relies on the people being regulated bureaucratic regulatory capture possible o The Administrative State administration attempt to make private corporations behave better Represented a Fundamental shift in political economic philosophy from automatic regulation via economic to conscious regulation via politics Economic signals market takes care of itself But it s not always obvious for the consumer what action to take So we have gravitated to the group application of political power Government with a clear role On country born upon suspicion of government power Conscious effect active government Political mechanism pluralist approach negotiation competition between interests New public philosophy Interest Group Liberalism an activist government utilizing a pluralist philosophy in pursuit of happiness in a capitalist Regulation not socialization Profits for capitalists not services for the people The US never took ownership of a private corporation Exceptions are Medicare and postal services In most modern industrialized democracies in the same era in time were going more into regulation control and socialization Owning private sectors after fucking up to provide services to the people SOCIALISM o Interest Group Liberalism IGL a technocratic movement power enforced by people with particular skill set Elites educated and people in industry Techno knowledge cratic power New Deal desire to guarantee equal access through removal of delivery from partisan politics which expanded the Federal Bureaucracy Civil service To Programmatic goals became legal rights Democratic governments vs Republican Supreme Courts because of Republican predominance before the New Deal Democrats wanted certain programs and Republicans asked for specific contracts of how and who they would be helping Growth of Entitlement programs Courts forced government to make specific contracts so they become rights Even when the eras changed and appointed groups that received the help got better they couldn t change the law You can t remove favors Ex Social Security IGL blossomed fully during Great Society President Linden Johnson Social initiatives that government made New Deal 1933 When interests groups blossomed government identification of new groups to be part of IGL system FDR s forgotten Americans be part of negotiation process take initiative we ll help you Great Society 1964 government sponsorship of new groups One step too far We ll do this for you Pro active Started sending government representatives to help people It looked like government was giving special treatment to specific social groups 30 years of trying to alleviate those groups Now Fundamental problem of IGL Government lost role as ultimate source of authority people who haven t received that help began to see it as looking out for certain people so why should we listen to you They became suspicious Government itself became collection of interests Government was begun to see as an arbitrator not decisive Private power overwhelms economic elites The Pathology of IGL IGL made government seen acceptable to help society Allowed political culture to grow but Broke down very ethic of government Problem arises from assuming that the public interests is simply the aggregation of private special interests When every individual makes self interested decisions affects the general population Referring to self interested decisions as public interests but government is supposed to serve the real public interest Now is less able to serve broad public interests As more and more interest groups are brought formally into process decline in legitimacy of traditional institutions of public control Proper ends of government are frequently ignored in favor of guaranteeing means When government became a sponsor for more groups it tried to guarantee means to make sure people were getting to the table of negotiation but this took time of government and made it lose its legitimacy by their attitude Adversary democracy replaces unitary democracy Adding individual goods Starting with the public good Paradox as size reach of government expands in response to popular demands legitimacy of government declined in proportion can do less for popular demands Loss of function Modern government approval depends on legitimacy effectiveness bureaucracy Let s move from public bureaucracy to private bureaucracy Private sector can do it better Pseudo governments Government management is not equal to democratic government Reactions against Big Government to state o Seeking solutions in revived states powers devolving power from control government Federalism political system in which all systems operate simultaneously National local state 87 900 local governments 50 state governments 1 federal government McCulloch vs Maryland 1819 Supreme Court ruled that Congress power under constitution gives them a lot of power When Federal government wants the power it can have it Since New Deal balance decided clearly in favor of Federal government Several recent Supreme Court decisions more back