Talk:Limited government

Goofy

"There is presently an ideological battle over the identity of the party, with interventionist and big government Republicans George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Rudy Giuliani pulling the party toward stronger central government and libertarian-leaning Republicans like Ron Paul advocating a return to the principles of limited government and non-interventionism."

There's some (a lot, imho) truth in this but it's not Wikipedia-grade content. --User At Work 18:31, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

What about 'limited business'? Someone has to keep an eye on them? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.165.34.52 (talk) 12:30, August 26, 2007 (UTC)

POV tag

I added this tag because the whole article looks like a pamphlet, with no proper sourcing and statements such as the last one in the article. Not to mention the "righteous" opposition of the Anglo-Saxon model with the republican French one, or the reference to the British House of Lords. Dpotop 21:33, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Minimal government or just limited government

k_michael wrote: I'd like to add that I'm looking into whether "limited government" (a phrase not in the constitution itself) means *minimal* government, as is claimed in this article, or whether it *actually* means that the *powers* of government are limited, for example, the limitation placed upon the suspension of habeus corpus... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.91.220.179 (talk) 18:13, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

Merger Proposal

To discuss, go here:Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)#Merger_proposal_:_Minarchism. --JokerXtreme (talk) 11:08, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Note an alternative proposal there to merge Small government and Limited government and of course mention both the libertarian and conservative varieties. CarolMooreDC (talk) 15:18, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Tagging and Article Necessity

I've applied some maintenance tags on this article because, quite frankly, it reads like something submitted by a high school student in his US Government class. To be even more honest I'm not even sure if it would fly as an essay because there are no citations. I also get the feeling this article doesn't even really need to exist -- surely everything covered here is discussed at greater length in the Constitutionalism and Libertarianism articles. Not to mention all of the articles that already exist within the relevant categories. ⚓ nbmatt 01:10, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Globalize

This article reads as if written from Tea Party talking points, and contains little "theory of government" armature.

Although sources overwhelmingly deal with "limited government" as an American phenomenon, by "globalize" I mean that the article needs to deal more broadly with the concept as a topic in the history of government, not as if it's merely a modern political platform. "Limited government" turns up in the 19th century in a number of constitutional law reviews, so there must be scholarship dealing better with the history of the concept.

• The Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy, for instance, manages not to sound hysterical (as this article does) in describing the relationship of "limited government" to protecting the rights of citizens: "American government is a form of liberal democracy. Liberal democracy rests on the principle of limited government. This principle assumes that the citizens voluntarily surrender part of their absolute power as sovereign to government so that government can make decisions for the state" (p. 181).

• Here's a source that discusses limited government in relation to Indian Government and Politics: "A limited government is one that exercises its power subject to certain restraints. … The concept of limited government is identified with liberal values and refers to limitations on government in terms of individual rights to liberty, property, and equality of opportunity, and the separation of powers between legislative, executive, and judicial functions" (p. 88).

• Hannah Arendt, On Revolution: "Constitutional government was even then," [that is, in the time of Jefferson] "as it still is today, limited government in the sense in which the eighteenth century spoke of a 'limited monarchy', namely, a monarchy limited in its power by virtue of laws. Civil liberties as well as private welfare lie within the range of limited government, and their safeguard does not depend upon the form of government. Only tyranny, according to political theory a bastard form of government, does away with constitutional, namely, lawful government."[1]

• Origins of National Interest[2]: "Liberals believe freedom requires the equal protection of certain basic civil liberties and rights to private property and a limited government under the rule of law" (p. 111).

• And interestingly: "Like classical liberals in general, classical liberal feminists favor limited government and a free market" (Feminist Thought, p. 35).

Although classic liberalism and libertarianism will diverge, a basic shared definition of "limited government" is not "do away with as much government as possible," but emphasizes government under law as a guarantor of civil liberties, and distinguishes between government and mere tyranny. I reworded the first sentence accordingly. Really, an encyclopedia article shouldn't be infected by the ahistorical hysteria of current politics. Cynwolfe (talk) 12:25, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

Y-cleped Anonymous

This article never actually explains what 'Limited Government' is, instead it merely explains what it does. I would like this page to include an encyclopedia-worthy definition of 'Limited Government.' I would add it in myself, but I am incapable of providing an encyclopedia-worthy definition of 'Limited Government' at the moment. Posted 2/17/2014 - 8:03. 2601:7:7F80:2B3:5463:2EB1:BB3E:1B5A (talk) 03:07, 18 February 2014 (UTC)