Corporations do not get bigger because they get more complicated. Rather, corporations get more complicated because they get bigger. In my earlier post, I presented Jane Jacobs’ argument that by their nature governments get bigger and their growth causes them to get more complicated. But Jacobs also applied the same principle to private organizations, like … Read more
The word “republic” refers to a society that operates for the good of the public. Philip Petit describes the origins of the American and European republican traditions. He says America’s republic is based on what he calls the “Italian-Atlantic” republican tradition. Based on the writings of Aristotle and Polybius, Machiavelli developed the “Italian” part of … Read more
One of America’s founding principles was that liberty cannot survive unless power is divided into multiple hands. The doctrine of separation of powers has a long history. The ancients (Greek and Roman) divided power according to a plan called mixed government. That is, they mixed or divided power between a monarchy, an aristocracy, and a … Read more
We tend to waste time, money, and energy attacking the symptoms of problems and ignore their root causes. What is the root cause of most of America’s problems? I believe it is government corruption. Moreover, I think that happens because we don’t know how to separate money and politics. The love of money is the … Read more
