Limited government
Limited government is a government in which anything more than minimal governmental intervention in personal liberties and the economy is not generally allowed by law, usually in a written constitution. It is written in the United States Constitution in Article 1, Section 8. It is related to free market libertarianism and classical liberalism and some tendencies of liberalism and conservatism in the United States.[1] The theory of limited government contrasts, for example, with the idea that government should intervene to promote equality and opportunity through regulation of property and wealth redistribution.[2] This definition is generally assumed by those who identify "limited government" with "small government." The national government is only allowed some powers, not supreme power.
The meaning of "limited government" is most easily grasped in contrast to the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings. Under that doctrine, the king, and by extension his entire government, held unlimited sovereignty over its subjects. The king could do what he wanted to do to whomever he wanted to it whenever he chose. Limited government exists where some effective limits restrict governmental power.
In Western civilization, the Magna Carta stands as the early exemplar of a document limiting the reach of the king's sovereignty. While its limits protected only a small portion of the English population, it did state that the king's barons possessed rights which they could assert against the king. The English Bill of Rights associated with the Glorious Revolution of 1688 established limits of royal sovereignty. The United States Constitution of 1787 created a government limited by the terms of the written document itself, by the election by the people of the legislators and the executive, and by the checks and balances through which the three branches of government limited each others' power.
Limited government can take many forms. As a conception it has no bearing on whether a government is "large" or "small." It has little to say about how a government should be organized or what policies it should pursue. For example, European social democratic states like the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or France, which sustain programs of government supported medicine and other social welfare programs, have limited governments.
Contents |
[edit] In the United States of America
In 1789, James Madison presented to the First United States Congress a series of ten Amendments to the United States Constitution, today known as the Bill of Rights. After enumerating specific rights retained by the people in the first eight Amendments, the Ninth Amendment and the Tenth Amendment summarily spelled out the principle of limited government. Together, these two last Amendments clarify the differences between the unenumerated (as well as enumerated) rights of the people versus the expressly codified delegated powers of the federal government. The Ninth Amendment codified that the rights of the people do not have to be expressly written in the Constitution (they do not have to be enumerated) to still be retained by the people. Reversely, though, the Tenth Amendment codified that any delegated powers of the federal government are only authorized to be performed so long as such delegated powers are expressly delegated to the federal government specifically by the Constitution. Government can do things only certain things and not others.
The Constitution limits the power of the government in several ways. It prohibits the government from directly interfering with certain key areas: Amendments, and association with Amendments. Other actions are forbidden with Amendments to the federal government and are reserved to state or local governments.
[edit] See also
Contrast:
- Big government
- Nanny state
- Paternalism
- Social engineering (political science)
- Totalitarianism
- Welfare state
