Part I: Big States, Small States, and Secession
15. Democracy Doesn’t Work Unless It’s Done Locally
In 2018, legislators in Iceland proposed a ban on circumcision of boys. For supporters this was a slam-dunk. Supporters viewed circumcision as a form a child abuse, and there was no down side to the legislation.
Every time the United States reaches its debt limit, we read that it is important to reach an agreement to lift it. The narrative is that the debt ceiling must be raised, or the US economy will suffer a severe contraction. There is even an episode of a TV series, “Designated Survivor”, where the character played by Kiefer Sutherland places lifting the debt ceiling as the priority to get the U.S. economy on track. The debt ceiling is viewed as an evil and anachronistic burden on growth. It is not.
Part II: Decentralization and Democracy
14. Why “One Man, One Vote” Doesn’t Work
It has increasingly become a central tenet of social-democratic thinking that all democratic systems must employ a “one man, one vote” framework. This, however, is just one more tool states use to undermine the benefits of political decentralization.
13. If America Splits Up, What Happens to the Nukes?
Opposition to American secession movements often hinges on the idea that foreign policy concerns trump any notions that the United States ought to be broken up into smaller pieces. It almost goes without saying that those who subscribe to neoconservative ideology, or views favoring interventionist foreign policy, treat the idea of political division with alarm or contempt. Or both.
