The following is an excerpt from our short course entitled “What Could Governments Do for Us?”
In our previous post, we discussed the difficulties faced by Congress and the president when deciding the best mix if taxation, spending, and borrowing. In this post, we discuss specific budgetary choices concerning liberty and justice.
Classically liberal republics like ours use constitutions and laws to protect personal freedoms. By contrast, governments in some other countries are quite repressive. For example, people may not be free to speak their minds on political matters (Uzbekistan[i]); people may be told which religion to practice (Saudi Arabia[ii]); or may be penalized from traveling outside their region (People’s Republic of China[iii]).
Thus, many governments, particularly republics like ours, maintain constitutional courts to settle disputes between the executive and legislative branches or between the federal government and the states or the people. Constitutional courts are essential to maintaining civil and economic liberties and rights when they are competent, fiscally independent, and nonpartisan.
- Click here to see country rankings for freedom and civil rights by Freedom House.
- Click here to see country rankings from the World Justice Project for “constraints on government powers” and “fundamental rights.”
Many governments use constitutions and laws to make it easier for citizens to own property and businesses. By contrast, in some countries, people are told what they must grow or produce (Myanmar[iv]), they may be prohibited from owning property (former communist countries), or the government may favor some business owners with monopoly rights, subsidies, and protection from foreign competitors. In some countries, bribes are required to conduct business. Other countries not only encourage private property and competitive business activity but also manage to do so while minimizing harmful practices such as slavery, cheating on commercial contracts, and pollution.
Many governments also maintain courts to settle matters of civil law. Civil cases involve disputes between people or organizations, such as contract disputes, labor disputes, or insurance claims. Civil courts are especially important to thriving, competitive business sectors when they are well-informed, technically competent, fiscally independent, and nonpartisan.Click here to see country rankings from the World Justice Project for “absence of corruption,” “open government,” and “regulatory enforcement.”
If you want more, the posts coming over the next several weeks will offer descriptions of additional budgetary functions common to many governments. In many cases, links have been provided to allow you to make comparisons across countries.
To see the full short course, click on the blue link “What Can Governments Do for Us?“
We offer several other short courses on the U.S. system of government. You can find them here: https://cffad.org/topics/
[i] Freedom House. Uzbekistan, 2019. See item D4.
[ii] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion_in_Saudi_Arabia
