Is Bigger Government Better Government, based from the arguments of Research Paper

Is Bigger Government Better Government, based from the arguments of Jim demint and Jeff Madrick - Research Paper Example Perhaps the most important of these are: making laws that are fair and just for all citizens, organizing and policing society, providing infrastructure such as healthcare, education, transport and financial systems, and representing the country’s interests in the wider world. It must also, of course, provide for elections and engage in dialogue with the public over policies in order to ensure that it reflects in a broad sense the will of the majority of the people, and considers the interests of minorities and those who are not in agreement with the ruling faction. In each of these areas there are arguments for more or less government involvement, and consequently bigger or smaller investment in government offices and budgets to undertake these tasks. This paper will explore first the ideas of Jeff Madrick, who favors the big government approach and then the ideas of Jim DeMint, who is a supporter of the smaller government approach. Finally these opposing views will be compare d in order to establish which of the two is better. Jeff Madrick in his book The Case for Big Government argues that people in modern America cling to a myth about the early stages of American History. This myth suggests that in the days before modern cities arose and mass industrialization became the norm, people had less government, and were able to live as they want to. The age of the pioneers and settlers is one which people like to idealize, praising the virtues of self-reliance and freedom from an interfering state which only wants to create unnecessary rules. Madrick cites a letter which Jefferson wrote, saying that a good government must be a â€Å"wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.† (Madrick, 2009, p. 33) The letter was written when Jefferson was not in charge , and Madrick points out that in practice, when he had responsibility for managing the expansion of the territory to include Louisiana, Jefferson did not follow through on this ideal view of government. He realized that land ownership of the vast new territories was the crucial factor which would determine the prosperity of individuals and organizations alike and he did not trust market forces to ensure that the new land would be distributed fairly: â€Å"The broad distribution of land he thought ideal could be accomplished only through government control and regulation.† (Madrick, 2009, p. 33) Throughout America’s history, from this time onwards, critical investments such as railroads, canals, and schools were supervised and regulated by state and local government officials. The benefits of this involvement can still be seen today: standardized gauges for the wagons, a transport network which serves both local and national needs and a fundamental and ever-increasing c ommitment to high quality education for all children and young people. While commitment to the free market economy has been an important factor in America’s economic success in the twentieth century, it has also seen several disastrous depressions and crashes, with cycles of boom and bust that have a serious impact on large sections of the population. In Madrick’