(THE CONVERSATION) — Paralyzed by the nation's most extreme lawmakers, the House of Representatives is expected to sign just 27 bills into law in 2023, down nearly 90% from last year. Republicans who see big government as a threat to liberty are calling that failure a success.
But the idea of small government is a myth that is at odds with U.S. history. In our new book, How Government Built America, we explore the extent to which the U.S. government has intervened in markets since colonial times. We find that this country has always had a big government.
18th Century Big Government
Small government advocates say the idea of limited government is fundamental to the United States. But the Founding Fathers, including those featured on today's $1 and $10 bills, called for the new government to intervene in markets.
Consider the situation in the late 18th century: After the United States won its independence from Great Britain, two political groups, Federalists and Anti-Federalists, fought to divide power between the federal and state governments.
Federalists supported a strong national government, while Anti-Federalists opposed it, but both camps agreed that government should play an important role in the new nation. Anti-Federalists were not opposed to a strong government, but rather wanted it to remain at the local level.
The Federalists, including Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and John Adams, won. They led the federal government's efforts to manage the economy and invest in infrastructure, including building canals, bridges and roads. To this day, the federal government makes similar investments to promote prosperity.
Thomas Jefferson and other Anti-Federalists believed that a strong, centralized federal government was more likely to corrupt than maintaining local governments. In his inaugural address, Jefferson called for “a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, and shall otherwise leave them free to regulate the pursuit of their own industry and improvement.”
But Jefferson did not campaign against the widespread regulatory activity that took place at the state level, when nearly every aspect of early American economy and society, from Sunday observance to the running of taverns, was regulated by the states, and before them the colonies. This was “big” government.
Jefferson, like the other Founding Fathers, was influenced by a political philosophy called republicanism, which is not to be confused with today's Republican Party. Republicanism understands the promotion of the public interest as the primary goal of good government. These lower-case republicans held government responsible for organizing economic and social activity.
Jefferson recognized that some part of government must be at the national level. As president, he supported the key elements of a national government established by the Federalists, including a national bank.
Three Centuries of Big Government
A similar pattern has played out throughout American history. Markets brought about the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s, but they also brought unsafe workplaces, products, slums, and poverty that limited individual opportunity and threatened people's livelihoods. In response, the federal government took over consumer market regulatory functions from the states for the first time, including railroad regulation, antitrust enforcement, and food and drug safety.
And when market freedoms led to the Great Depression of 1929-1939, it was governments that restored economic opportunity and helped people live and work during that time.
More recently, when Wall Street crashed the economy during the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, governments had to step in again to restore markets. When COVID-19 hit, governments raced to develop a vaccine and restore people's freedom to live and work.
A question of values
We believe the myth of small government not only contradicts the reality of American history, but also threatens our nation's fundamental political values: We needed both markets and government to build a nation true to the American values of liberty, equality, fairness, and the common good.
For example, consider freedom. When individuals buy a car, start a business, or make countless other market decisions, markets are praised as promoting individual freedom. According to this understanding, market participants are free to make their own choices, and in so doing, the market will bring wealth and prosperity to the nation.
The internet revolution is a good example: as entrepreneurs seek consumer attention and business, consumers have endless options in programming, software, podcasts, and other social media.
But history shows that markets can also limit consumer and worker freedoms and undermine the public interest. Consider how the Internet can threaten the safety and well-being of children.
The United States can shrink government, as its most determined political opponents demand, but history shows that the dangers posed by markets will not go away. For example, the world faces an existential threat called climate change, which the free market alone cannot solve.
The exact mix of government and markets has been debated throughout American history, and favoring “small” government has been a perennial campaign theme. But the idea that “big markets” without “big” government oversight, as far-right congressmen argue, is what's best for the country ignores centuries of American history.
Sidney Shapiro is the Frank U. Fletcher Dean of Law at Wake Forest University. Joseph P. Tomain is Dean Emeritus and the Wilbert and Helen Ziegler Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article at https://theconversation.com/the-us-has-always-had-big-government-even-in-the-colonial-era-228490.
