Why does a democratic government tend to become profligate and oppressive?

(The date and time are dummy values to be updated when the meeting is scheduled.)

Why does a modern democratic government tend to become profligate and oppressive?

275 years ago in 1748, French theorist Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) published The Spirit of the Laws. In this book, Montesquieu presents a triad theory of government based on his conceptualization of the structure of the British government: legislature, executive, judiciary.

As far as I know, Montesquieu's theory of government influenced the structure of all democratic governments created during the period of revolution against colonial rule in the 1700s-1900s. As a result, Montesquieu's theory evidently became the most influential theory of government in the history of civilization, informing free peoples everywhere how to structure their governments.

In my work, I reveal a major flaw in Montesquieu's theory: he fails to see that the citizens have an essential role to play in governance by checking the government. I quote Montesquieu, showing where his reasoning goes astray, thereby contributing to his failure to see the essential role of the citizens. In the absence of citizen checks, a democratic government will tend to become profligate and oppressive.

I reconceptualize the theory of checks and balances as the theory of autonomous power centers — APC theory. In APC theory, the citizenry constitutes the foundational power center of a democratic government, while the three branches of government constitute additional autonomous power centers. This conceptualization embraces Montesquieu's affirmation that the sovereignty of a democratic nation lies in the citizens. Thus, according to APC theory, there are four basic autonomous power centers in a democracy:

• Legislature, executive, judiciary, citizenry

Each power center can check each of the other three.

APC theory completes Montesquieu's theory of checks and balances with two citizen checks on government: a citizen fiscal check and a citizen power check. A well-designed citizen fiscal check should solve the most intractable problem in democratic governance, namely, excessive growth in government cost and size. A well-designed citizen power check should solve the problem of excessive growth in government regulatory power. In short, with well-designed citizen checks in place, the citizens should check a government's propensity to become profligate and oppressive.

Since the United States constitution is structured according to Montesquieu's triad theory, the United States government suffers from the deficiencies of Montesquieu's theory. But with the addition of a well-designed citizen fiscal check and a well-designed citizen power check on the federal government, the natural dynamics of governance should produce a limited, decentralized system of government without a serious threat that it will become profligate and oppressive.

In the meeting, I will present these ideas for discussion.

Reference: Philip Bitar, The Second American Revolution, Edition 2 (2022), chapter 9

Meeting times and locations

Time is PST or PDT, depending on time of year, X = TBD:

X:00 pm in-person — Marysville Library, 2nd meeting-room door on LHS of entrance hallway

X:15 pm online — link to be posted here before meeting

If you plan to attend in person, when you register, please add a comment "Plan to attend in person" to help me in preparing room accommodations.