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The Case for a Vital and Strong National Government Taking the Initiative in Order to Achieve Social and Economic Justice Social and economic justice is the necessary prerequisite of our future. What are the main characteristics of a social government? What is social justice? What is the social policy of our government?
What is economic justice? Finally, what initiative might the federal government be taking now to achieve social and economic justice? Henry Steele Commager in his article Tocqueville's Mistake dwells on a defense of strong central government. He speaks about Alexis de Tocqueville, making the case for a vital and strong national government taking the initiative in order to achieve social and economic justice. He questions Tocqueville's maxim While liberty is the product of Art and can be achieved therefore only by the most scrupulous calculations, centralization is the product of Nature, and as such enlists the passions of all men (70). However, although Tocqueville's point of view was valid in relation to the Old World, in America it hardly could be the correct answer.
Tocqueville failed to understand that in the U. S. federal system the issue of the role of central and local governments had taken on a new character (70). Tocqueville adhered to the idea that liberty had a closer connection with local than with centralized governments (70). However, in the countries, where the central government was relatively weak, the people enjoyed more liberty. For example, the American colonies had a larger measure of liberty compared to the Mother Country.
Tocqueville erroneously considered that centralization can pose a threat to the liberty. However, there was no threat. Tocqueville failed to understand that America with its federal system and states, which were larger than some nations of the Old World (70) shaped a completely new local and central governments. So, what is a strong national government?
The opponents of centralization claim that the U. S. had a Big Government but not a strong national government. However, many European countries also own and control the utilities, the banks, all forms of transportation, most natural resources, and most radio and television stations, finances, medical services, educational institutions, housing, and social services, to mention a few. We can agree with Henry Steele Commager's opinion that Americans do not have a Big Government (71), because such state of things is common to any other national government. Moreover, not all opponents of centralization are critical of all forms of centralization (71) as was Tocqueville.
What concerns the growth of liberty in result of the growth of the national government, Henry Steele Commager claims that from the very beginning, it has not been the states that have been the chief instruments of democracy but the central government in Washington (72). We can agree with Commager that it was the state government that maintained slavery and it was the national government that abolished it. It was the national government that intervened with the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments and a succession of civil rights acts designed to emancipate and free (72). It was the federal court that vindicated the womens rights.
It was the U. S. Congress that enacted different charters of freedom for labor, such as the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, the Social Security Act of 1935, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, and many others. As it is asserted by Henry Steele Commager, these laws did more to establish social justice than the whole corpus of state labor legislation since the Civil war (72). At the same time, the role of the national government in its attempt to promote justice and general welfare is expressed in federal efforts related to conservation of natural resources.
At the same time, as every natural resource is continental, if not global; and, as it is reasonably claimed by Steele Commager, local governments cannot control any one of them (72). Tocqueville also tried to answer the question about the distinguishing features of the American democracy. According to him, it was individualism. However, Tocqueville considered that an individualism was not extreme compatible with an orderly society (73), despite his acknowledgment that the system had worked for half a century (73).
As he considered, the good fortune that had accompanied America would continue in case American nation could overcome the threat of militarism, industrial oligarchy, as well as the threat of centralization. He considered that it might enable American democracy to escape the fate of other democracies (73). Yet, as we can see, he was wrong. So, what initiative might the federal government be taking now to achieve social and economic justice? As far as social policy of our government is aimed to take care about the U. S.
citizens, the federal government should continue its initiatives to guarantee access to quality health care, to assure public education, to continue the system of social guarantees for the persons with low income in order to improve the underprivileged coefficient. The federal government should continue shaping the idea of society with social equality and justice. The two main initiatives might be the idea of governmental support of the unprivileged by providing them social benefits, and reexamining pension benefits. Probably, instead of making changes in the old social policy, our government might consider developing completely new social policy based on three main concepts labor, justice and family. The welfare of an average American family should become the indicator of well-being of our country in general, as well as the indicator of the effectiveness of the executive power and the policy of reforms in our country. Finally, the initiatives should be aimed to improve the quality of life and, by doing this, achieving social and economic justice.
Works Cited Commager, Henry Steele. "Tocqueville's Mistake. " Harper's 269. 1611 (1984): 70 - 74.
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Research essay sample on Strong National Government Social And Economic
