20100208

Ungovernableness?

RealClearPolitics - HorseRaceBlog - America is Not Ungovernable: "Recently, some analysts have suggested that the lack of major policy breakthroughs in the last year is due to the fact that America has become ungovernable. Ezra Klein argued that it was time to reform the filibuster because the government cannot function with it intact anymore. Tom Friedman suggested that America's 'political instability' was making people abroad nervous."

The author argues that the US is governable but Obama has failed.

Here is another take on the Obama story. Unlike The Economist who asks whether Obama has failed or not they ask whether the US is governable or not. However, I found the following book summary statement:

"I conclude that networks are now a pervasive feature of service delivery in Britain; that such networks are characterized by trust and mutual adjustment and undermine management reforms rooted in competition; and that they are a challenge to governability because they become autonomous and resist central guidance". Replace Tea Party groups as networks as an experiment.

If you end up with a country organized mainly in this fashion, ie, with these kind of networks, the presidency just float on top. It will be especially evident if the government is not most informed. A typical example was George W. Bush who was utterly lame duckized. Will Obama follow? According to David Brooks 41% are organized in the Tea Party format. The movement is already larger than each of the parties.

I read all the articles written about the Tea Party Convention this weekend and there were statements that they were not looking for leadership. Like if they wanted to govern without government. If I understand this correctly it will become a sort of coexistence that then still would require some form of a minimal government. The revolution Sarah Palin is talking about might be how to replace government with a new minimal government?

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