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P Is for Poison
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Made in Heaven
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Monumental Egos
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Facing Up to Darwin
February 29, 2012 | 187 comments
The Pursuit of Knowledge
Politics as a Profession
Is America safe from the European disease?
Angelo Codevilla’s examination of the American political class in The American Spectator of July this year will surely take its place among the seminal texts of American conservatism. It brings into clear focus the great danger to the American settlement that has arisen during the course of the last century — which is the slow, steady confiscation of political decisions by a self-defining elite. The cost of those decisions is borne by the people; the benefits accrue to the elite and to those who share its lifestyle. As a result the American political process is beginning to resemble the political process in Europe, where only unimportant matters are discussed in elected legislatures, and where the real decisions are taken behind closed doors, among members of the political class. This class includes a few elected politicians, or at any rate politicians who have at some point been elected to some office that may or may not still exist. But elected politicians form only a small proportion of the elite, most of whose members are in any case unelectable. Far more important are the upper echelons of the bureaucracy, the “captains of industry,” the trade union barons, the favored members of the professoriate, and the people who, for whatever reason, are owed favors by the ruling party.
In a lecture delivered at the University of Munich in 1918, just after the defeat of Germany, and before the new order of German democracy had begun, the great sociologist Max Weber spoke of “politics as a calling” (Politik als Beruf). He drew attention to the inevitable consequence of democracy, which is that while some people will live for politics many more will live from it. The democratic process is open to capture by cohesive groups who, in the course of one parliamentary session, can build institutions and tax-flows that grant a permanent rent to their members, regardless of whether they have been elected to government, and regardless of whether they have ever been honestly and gainfully employed. This capture has been achieved by the trade union elites in France and Germany, by the utilities companies in Scotland and France, by the motor and aerospace industries in Britain, and by all those who live from the welfare state — which means, primarily, not the teachers in schools or the doctors and nurses in the hospitals, but the bureaucrats who control them, and who are in a position to demand an ever larger share of the public revenue.
Until recently the British Parliament made spasmodic efforts to retain control over the use of tax revenue and to account for legislation to the people. Gradually, however, the political class has triumphed over politics: most legislation, and most political decisions, are now governed by bureaucrats who enjoy lifelong security of tenure and who need never account for what they do. And the decision-making powers of local government and civil associations have been transferred to “quasi-autonomous non-government organizations,” staffed by tried and trusted members of the political elite. The Labour Party has been particularly energetic in creating and financing these “quangos,” so that there are now nearly 900 of them, consuming a tax-funded income of £170 billion a year. Many of them have legislative or quasi-legislative powers, like the Health and Safety Directorate, which has encumbered our society with absurd regulations and imposed crippling expenditures on business. Some even have powers of policing, like the Commission for Racial Equality, which regularly prosecutes people, usually without success, for racist thought-crimes. Their officers are shielded from the normal consequences of decision-making while often receiving salaries that can be matched in the private sector only by CEOs. Two hundred quangos have been added in the last two years alone, including the “Herbal Medicines Advisory Committee,” the “Thames Gateway Development Corporation,” and the “School Food Trust,” funded to the tune of £63 million in order to explore ways of improving the meals served in schools.
Such protected spheres of influence provide an unprecedented breeding ground for the political class. There is now a well-trodden career path from the politicized NGOs of the left, via the left-leaning quangos, to high office in the Labour Party and thence to the lucrative bureaucracies of the European Union. The Parliamentary Labour Party now consists almost entirely of career politicians who have spent their lives spending other people’s money and providing ideological reasons for stealing more of it. An astonishing example is Baroness Ashton, the first ever “foreign minister” of the European Union — and therefore my foreign minister, who negotiates on my behalf with all the governments of the world.
I know a lot about Baroness Ashton’s career. But I don’t know anything else about her other than that she is having to learn French for the first time. When our country had control of its foreign relations, a knowledge of French was the first requirement for any position in foreign affairs. Now, it seems, you can reach the very summit of European politics with no qualifications at all. Lady Ashton began as a secretary in the most destructive of all the left-wing NGOS, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, a KGB-funded pressure group that nearly succeeded in preventing the deployment of cruise missiles in Britain, at a time of real and pressing Soviet threat. She moved to the “Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work,” a leftist quango devoted to the maintenance of the welfare state’s most hopeless victims. From there she moved smoothly to the National Health Service, became chair of the Health Authority in Hertfordshire, and was finally appointed vice president of the National Council for One Parent Families. She entered the House of Lords at the behest of Tony Blair, and in accordance with his policy of filling the upper house with leftist apparatchiks. She became a European Commissioner by appointment, the choice being Gordon Brown’s, and foreign minister likewise, as a result of a deal worked out by the European political elite. Never once has this woman ventured to propose herself for election to anything. Instead she has been carried from office to office by a class whose interests she can be guaranteed to represent, and whose agenda she will never question.
IS AMERICA SAFE FROM the European disease? Surely the principles of federalism, built into the Constitution by the great men who devised it, will prevent the final confiscation of political decisions from the people whom they serve? Surely we shall never see in America the emergence of a government machine of the kind we see in Europe, where the most important decisions are taken behind the closed doors of the European Commission, by bureaucrats who have never been elected and who keep no minutes of their meetings?
True, things are unlikely to go that far. But the American president has expressed his approval for the European superstate, and American politicians talk and act as though people like our “foreign minister” really are entitled to speak for us. Moreover the political class in America has discovered its own way of bypassing the people, legislating through the Supreme Court rather than through Congress, and creating government agencies that give permanent rents and regulatory powers to its members. Just how far the ruling class can proceed in the European direction is debatable, but this fall our bravest member of the European Parliament, the English conservative Daniel Hannan, is publishing an important book that spells out the dangers, brilliantly summarizes the state of play, and shows exactly why the American Constitution both deserves and needs protection from the new ruling class. The New Road to Serfdom (Harper), which takes its title from the famous anti-socialist tract published by Friedrich Hayek, is subtitled A Letter of Warning to America. And no reader of this magazine should be without a copy.
Hannan shows just how easy it is to remove powers from the people and to transfer them to professional politicians; he documents the process as it has occurred in Europe and identifies the warning signs in America. And he utters a passionate plea to the American people, as the last representatives of the freedoms for which the English-speaking people have given so many lives. It is time, he tells his American readers, to wake up to what is happening, and to rescue their Constitution from the new ruling class. His book, along with Angelo Codevilla’s article (which he has expanded and is now available in book form from Beaufort Books), should be on sale at every Tea Party.
About the Author
Roger Scruton is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. His latest book, How to Think Seriously About the Planet: The Case for an Environmental Conservatism, has just been published by Oxford University Press.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.6.10 @ 7:26AM
Mr. Scruton,
No sir, we will not comply. My book will be out in a few days: "TEXAS SAID NO!"
It will be released first as a downloadable e-book.
R Martin| 10.6.10 @ 8:01AM
Ken, your book and the works to which Mr. Scruton refers are not mutually exclusive.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.6.10 @ 8:19AM
R Martin,
Hopefully they are complementary. (smile)
If you like vince Flynn, hopefully you will enjoy my story.
Skinner| 10.6.10 @ 1:40PM
Love Flynn, have all his books.
When and WHERE?
Alan Brooks| 10.6.10 @ 6:57PM
Actually, I think Northern Europe is a better place to live than anywhere else. But not for long!
Time and tide are on nobody's side.
That's what atheists can't get: if everything is in a state of change, then what else is there besides religion?
Funny, all the atheists I know celebrate the holidays as much as anybody does.
Doctor Right| 10.6.10 @ 7:51AM
There's a two-word prescription for the disease of the ruling class:
TERM LIMITS
Make sure that any candidate you support is a supporter of Term Limits. Get him/her on record. Don't vote for them if they refuse. And if they renege, throw them out at the next cycle.
We CANNOT afford to have our country run by the professional, elite political class any longer.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.6.10 @ 8:25AM
Doctor Right,
I have always struggled with "term limits" as you describe it. What I would hope is that incumbency wasn't so secure.
Being an old Father Against Rowdy Teenagers, (notice caps please), I appreciate the value of experience.
Somehow can't we figure out how to make every election a term limit?
God help us if a bunch of freshmen get into congress and let the "old heads" in the bureaucracies run circles around them.
Bob S| 10.6.10 @ 12:50PM
Dr. Right: Please re-read the article. Most of the problems are NOT located in the elected officials, but in the unelected bureaucrats- unelected and untouchable- created by the elected officials because they are too lazy or self-important to do what they were elected to do.
Joe Oliva| 10.6.10 @ 3:06PM
Correct Bob.
The bureaucrats who inhabit the multitude of agencies that now run our lives will still be in place. The only solution is to dismantle this entire bureaucratic nanny state apparatus, and that will take true patriots running and winning office in congress and state/local positions.
The departments of Education, Energy, and the subsidiaries like OSHA, et. al. need to be completely and permanently put out of business. If we do not do that, we will sink into Euro-Socialism anyway, and the elites who created the mess will still enjoy power.
Harry the Horrible| 10.6.10 @ 3:52PM
Bring back the "Spoils System."
At least we'll get a house cleaning with each new administration.
Kevin Riley O'Keeffe | 10.7.10 @ 6:44AM
In 1990, we implemented term limits for the California Legislature, and even stalwart conservative Congressman Tom McClintock, one of the proposal's most vigorous backers in 1990, has come to agree with almost everyone that it was one of the biggest mistakes we ever made. All term limits do is weaken elected officials, to the benefit of lobbyists, and the other members of the very same unelected, permanent political class that this article is referencing. Term limits seem like a neat idea, but after two decades of experience with them, there is really no question they've only exacerbated the problems we face. The fact liberal Democrats don't push for term limits merely shows they are too selfish and short-sighted to pursue a policy that would greatly add to the power of their myriad constituencies in the USA.
idalily| 10.7.10 @ 10:08PM
With all due respect, NO. Term limits, IMO, are unconstitutional. Think about it. You would be prohibited from voting for someone just because they've served X number of years? What happens to freedom then? Just as importantly, term limits legislation focuses on the symptoms, not the problem. The problem is an ignorant and lazy electorate. These hard times may be a blessing in disguise making decisions based on 30 second commercials of half-truths. BUT for the first time in my voting lifetime, people are talking about Constitutional ISSUES. There is hope to vote out the bad and keep the good, as the founding fathers intended.
Alan Brooks| 10.8.10 @ 11:55PM
"We CANNOT afford to have our country run by the professional, elite political class any longer."
Late in the day for that. You might have discussed a high-priority 'issue' such as this in 1998, rather than the stain on Monica's dress.
But keep on wasting your time-- it is your time, remember.
R Martin| 10.6.10 @ 8:11AM
"...the political class has triumphed over politics: most legislation, and most political decisions, are now governed by bureaucrats who enjoy lifelong security of tenure and who need never account for what they do."
See Frank, Barney. The political class has raised obfuscation to an art form, and the Rep. from Massachusetts is its chief practitioner. Accountability must be the new watchword in politics.
Melvin| 10.6.10 @ 8:12AM
I think allot of people don't really understand what Americans are and what we stand for. Sure, there are those who belong to the Ruling Elite Professional Political Class who are enamored with the Euro way of doing things.
We have heard, time after time, of our cities mayors touting, "Well, this is the way they do it in London," or some other chic European City.
And this Euro political philosophy is why the American people are pushing back in mass.
This is why we see close to a million citizens show up at the Washington Mall, trying to make the politicians understand that, "We're not Europeans, we don't want Euro style socialism or any other socialism for that matter."
Looking at the European style of governance, with all it's bells and whistles, is nothing less than a suffocating way of making it's citizens die of a slow and agonizing death.
Our system might not be the most perfect, but at least it still let's us breath.
Petronius| 10.6.10 @ 8:35AM
I would not deign to ask Professor Scruton what can be done with and about the despots who run our lives and determine it's quality when their names never appear on any ballot. But then, nobody learns any history these days. To any and all in and out of government who's power is beyond the reach of the electorate, I say they should study the cause and effect of the seminal event that spawned the founding of this Country; The English Civil War. They indulge in and practice the kind of profligacy, duplicity, and Oath breaking committed by an absolute monarch which impelled his erstwhile subjects to execute him.
The situation will not change much in the EU as most of it's populace is economically illiterate and unarmed. Things are different here.
Chalkdust| 10.6.10 @ 9:16AM
"Politics as a profession" and "old heads" go hand in hand. If people who are elected to office find the feather bed of elected office to comfortable to leave and are unwilling to go back from wince they came. The peoples boot should be TERM LIMITS!
Potomac fever can infect a once good Republican as well as an elitist demonrat. General speaking, working Americans have their heads down and leaning hard into the harness, earning a living and raising kids to keep track of some guy/gals every move....and thats what it takes. So in my opinion, being against term limits is being willing to accept the same old same old.
Kevin Riley O'Keeffe | 10.7.10 @ 6:48AM
No, term limits just strengthens the very same unelected, permanent political class which this article is in reference.
Walter Reed| 10.6.10 @ 11:30AM
"Potomic Fever" got the name because in the miasma of 19th century Washington, stomache flu and other aliments prompted the government to get out of town. A law forbidding air-conditioning in govt. used buildings might have similar results.
CiLH| 10.6.10 @ 12:07PM
One wonders if the heretofore "protected" class will continue to be protected. Local towns and municipalities are cutting their expenditures and have been doing so since the start of this "O-conomy".
Quoting from WSJ "Property-tax collections this year posted their first dollar decline in years, slipping 1.8% in 2010, the National League of Cities said Wednesday in a report. The report is based on a survey of hundreds of finance officers from across country."
At the local level, the beneficiaries of bureaucratic status quo, have been losing their jobs! One can only hope that trickle-up occurs in Congress and Washington DC as well.
Clinton nee Publius | 10.6.10 @ 1:40PM
As long as we use the taxation method of financing the cost of government and entitlements, the issues that worried Max Weber almost 90 years ago will continue to be the unavoidable outcome of representative forms of government and this has always been the bane that ended every democracy and republic in the 2,500 years of recorded human history.
When you use compulsory funding, sooner or later, the only result is compulsory corruption. This can only be avoided by ceasing taxation and using the investment-income model of revenue generation and ending fractional-reserve banking. This is the reality of the Modern Era, the Industrial Era, the Colonial Period, the Renaissance, the Middle Ages, the Dark Ages and even the days before Christ. You can believe anything you like, but if you believe that you can make the taxation model of fiscal policy appropriations work, I would point out to you that history has given the verdict and it is 100% failure. If you think we are smart enough to succeed where everyone else failed over the past 2,500 years, then you are more delusional than Obama and Pelosi at a LSD love-in.
JP| 10.6.10 @ 2:42PM
We already see this in the EPA. For many reasons Congress -even when the GOP runs it- allows this group of outlaws to do as they please. And of course the courts are in league. The FCC, FTC, EPA and now HHS will continue to accumulate even more power. One would think the leaders of Congress would guard thier authority and power jealously. But they don't. Just think of the farmers who will soon be told how much dust they can generate (I'm not kidding); or the owners of some 85,000 buildings and factories who were recently told that thier boiler systems do not meet EPA regulations concerning Greenhouse Gase emissions( ie they must spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on each system to get them up to "code"). We all will find out soon how little recourse we have to the law. And every 2-4 years there will be a new group of "young guns" promising to fix it all. But every year, it gets worse.
Congress can change this situation any time it so chooses. But, they won't. Not even the GOP has the will to do it. Is there something going on we don't know about?
Joe Oliva| 10.6.10 @ 3:25PM
Yes JP, there is something going on.
It is called the New World Order/One World Government that all the elites believe in, even the GOP. The only apparent difference is that the GOP would like America to remain the top dog in this NWO while the Democrats couldn't care less.
That is why Obama acts as he does. He doesn't think America is exceptional, he wants us lowered down to the level of the rest of the world, and he intends to spread our wealth around to impoverished peoples.
These elites who hold to the NWO/OWG vision expect the struggling middle class to always work hard to support the vast false Utopia. They know it is in our blood to work hard to try to build up something for our kids. As for themselves, the elites (that would be those in politics, academia, business & banking, unions, philanthropy & other NGO's) now do all they can to accrue wealth. They certainly do not want to be among the poor and they also do not want to have to work very hard. They are in effect, preparing themselves and their progeny to be at the top of the heap.
The eventual end will be like some science fiction nightmare where the struggling masses are enslaved by a bureaucracy that will tell them how to live and redistribute their earnings to the deserving poor, while the elites of course, sit pretty and comfortable enjoying the state dinners and lavish fund raising parties .
You can bet on that being the game and we are now being hard pressed to stop it!
PattyMor| 10.6.10 @ 3:25PM
Both sides LOVE the power that comes from spending someone else's money. They get to dole it out and lord it over us.
Jenny| 10.6.10 @ 6:27PM
Angelo Codevilla's "The Ruling Class" should be required reading among voters everywhere.
GavInTucson| 10.6.10 @ 11:56PM
I've got a stack of books, literally up to my waist, that I've purchased but haven't read yet.
Looks like the stack is going to get a little higher.
Long Ben| 10.7.10 @ 6:14AM
Imagine the squeals of terror from the Katie Couric , Keith Uberdork and their like if the beauracracy were razed by a new group of freedom lovers in office . Said squeals would make fitting harmony or counterpoint to the pealing of church bells all across the land , each one proclaiming Liberty throughout the land .
sinanju| 10.8.10 @ 1:30AM
The abdication of legislative power to the courts and the bureaucracy by Congress is no accident. This simply absolves them of having to take responsibility for making unpopular laws.
Their must be some way a future, conservative president could systematically dredge up the more odious regulations in the federal register imposed over the last few decades and force Congress to formally vote on them or be forced let them expire.
art| 10.9.10 @ 6:47AM
In case you haven't thought of it;
All our federal bureaucracies can do the exact same thing as their European counterparts.
Every regulation carries the weight of law while not being promulgated by our representatives.
Surprise!!!
Mike | 10.9.10 @ 3:05PM
Term limits just speeds up the music in the game of musical chairs that is modern American politics. Politics is a business, and most successful politicians are in it for life. When liberal politicians realize that they will be unable to secure good jobs after being term-limited out, they repeal the term limits (as recently happened in NYC...although Mayor Bloomberg allowed himself to be considered responsible for proposing term limit repeal, the real impetus for repeal came from the members of the City Council, who were terrified that they would lose thier "jobs"). Whet America really needs is smaller government. This makes it harder to hide patronage and no-show jobs.
Jocasta| 10.12.10 @ 5:35PM
Concerning the elitist liar Roger Scruton:
I haven’t read any of his books, but I did hear him give a talk back in the 1980s. This was a restricted-entry, invited audience, not open to the general public. During his talk, he quite clearly said that religion was clearly nonsense on a rational level, but we should pretend that it’s true because it helps to control the masses. Those weren’t his exact words, but convey what he said.
I thought that sounded exactly what you might expect from an aristocratic conservative philosopher, who no doubt longed for something much like Plato’s Republic.
Joe G.| 10.15.10 @ 1:41AM
Jocasta,
If there's a way to smear someone with hazier details, I'm sure you're working on it.