Government

The portrait heading up this blog is of James Madison. He was the fourth US President. Prior to holding this office he was one of the authors of the US Declaration of Independence and a prominent architect of the US system of government. He put a lot of thought and effort into the question of how government should work and wrote a lot on the subject. He was also one of the authors of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights, documents central to how its founders thought government was designed to work in the US.

One of his many writings is an essay known as Federalist Number 51, published in February 1788. It’s title indicates the purpose of the essay: "The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments". The idea of checks and balances is a crucial part of the US system of government.

A particular set of his famous words struck two chords with me. The words are: “If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.” *

First, there was a sadness that even the US system of government in its application today, has many flaws. Of course these flaws are present in any form of human government. An even fairly cursory look at your news media of choice will confirm that our world’s systems of government are not producing the results one would hope for.

The second chord is the main one. If government is not administered by humans with all their flaws but by ‘angels’, in other words, an entity without those flaws, then government would equitably benefit the governed. There would be no need for checks or balances because there would be no untoward ambition to be constrained; the problem that James Madison tried so hard to solve. That’s exactly the type of government that God has promised is coming to this world when Jesus returns to set up God’s Kingdom. Consider these words for example:

“… He will not judge by appearance nor make a decision based on hearsay. He will give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited. The earth will shake at the force of his word, and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked.”

Isaiah 11:3-4 (NLT)

There is much more in God’s Bible together with a lot of practical advice on how to live today.

* Reference. https://guides.loc.gov/federalist-papers/text-51-60#:~:text=If angels were to govern,oblige it to control itself.