How James Madison will save us from George W. Bush, even if Bush gets re-elected.
Reflecting on John Perry Barlow’s very eloquent warning about the danger to the Republic inherent in a second Bush term (see previous post), Jordan Peterson of the University of Toronto offered a hopeful and (I think) largely accurate contrary view. The following is a paraphrase, but the sense is largely unchanged:
The reason that the American Revolution created a republic that has done so well for so long, while the French and Russian revolutions degenerated so quickly into tyranny, was that the American Framers didn’t try to create a government capable of doing great good in the hands of brilliant and well-intentioned people. Instead, they tried to create a government that couldn’t do too much to ruin the country in the hands of a bunch of corrupt morons. And they did a pretty good job of it.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman
What we need in a Constitution.
Again from Mr Kleiman. Quite probably to shortest destruction of the new EU Constitution possible, even if that's not what the comment was aimed at: The reason that the American Revolution created a republic that has done so well for
What we need in a Constitution.
Again from Mr Kleiman. Quite probably the shortest destruction of the new EU Constitution possible, even if that's not what the comment was aimed at: The reason that the American Revolution created a republic that has done so well for