Populism and Democracy

Understanding state and federal administrative states and self-government

For most of my career, those of us on the right have bemoaned the hubris and reach of the federal administrative state—the collection of Washington-based agencies that shape life through regulations, letters, and hearings. The federal bureaucracy combines many of the things that frustrate conservatives the most: centralization, uniformity, technocracy, scientism. This is why the right is so enthused about the likely overturn of “Chevron deference.”

But I think two things have been missing from this discussion: 1. How the federal administrative state stokes populism, and 2. Why it is that virtually no one talks about state governments’ administrative states.

I wrote about these issues in a piece now up at American Habits (a terrific online publication focused on self-government and decentralized decision-making).

Photo by the blowup on Unsplash

I argue that populism can be understood as the distance between the citizenry’s priorities and the government’s activities. The larger the gap, the greater the populist energy. Given the federal bureaucracy’s distance from most of us, undemocratic nature, presumptuousness, and power, it can seem genetically engineered to grow the distance between the two.

I discuss why state governments have a natural immunity to populism (e.g., proximity, democracy) and how state governments have ensured that their agencies don’t get out of control.

Now, I appreciate that talk of the “federal administrative state” can cause most readers’ eyes to start to glaze over. And I appreciate that talk of state-level administrative states and the roots of populist energy is enough to make most people stop reading.

But we have to take such things seriously if we take governing seriously. America is the world’s greatest experiment is self-government. We must be aware of the institutions, practices, and beliefs that undermine self-government, and we must be aware of the consequences of undermining self-government.

America desperately needs more good governing right now, and that requires our recommitment to American-style self-government—democracy, republicanism, federalism, and localism.

I hope you give my short essay a read.

And do check out American Habits.