Term-of-Office Limits Won't Reduce Government Abuse; G. Galles

Term limitation measures will clear out those who cannot grandfather themselves in, throwing many of those symbolizingthe system'sfailingsout of office (probably into lucrative lobbying careers). They also will eliminate Congressional Methuselahs in the future. But it is not clear that they will lead to a more responsible government. Term limitations are unlikely to contribute much to fixing our nation's governance problems because these failings are primarily rooted in what the government is allowed to do, not in which par ticular members do it for how long. The central problem is that long-standing Constitutional con straints limiting government power have been pro gressivelyeroded, so that government has increas ingly turned from being the protector of the property rights of its citizens against the violations of others to being itself a pervasive violator of those rights. The resulting ability to help your friends at others' expense leads to the abuse of government power regardless of how long any individual may stay in an elective office.

Professor Galles teaches economics at Pepperdine Uni versity, Malibu, California. Consider Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, granting Congress the power to levy "uniform tax es" to provide for the "general welfare." In con trast, today's tax code is riddled with discriminatory taxes designed to burden particular subgroups of the population, following the dictum: "Don't tax you. Don't tax me. Taxthe fellowbehind that tree." Furthermore, a large share of government expen ditures, such as the multi-billion dollar agricultural price support programs, are designed to benefit certain groups at taxpayers' expense. There is noth ing in the Constitution· that even hints that using general tax revenue for the provision of benefits to such special interests is a legitimate Federal func tion. But the fact that such policiesare now consid ered acceptable (even commendable, by the bene ficiaries) leads to abusive government.

Consider also the Fifth Amendment's state ment: "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." While this prevents the government from physically tak ing your property without payment, current court interpretations let the government take large parts of its value to benefit particular special interests through regulations and restrictions (such as rent-control laws, which may not physi cally take apartments from their owners, but which transfer much of their value to current ten ants). This ability to regulate costs onto others in order to help supporters is another source of abu sive government. Similar reinterpretations have befallen other parts of the Constitution, such as the contracts and commerce clauses, which essentially have been 112 THE FREEMAN • MARCH 1991 transformed from barriers against government intrusion into open invitations under almost any pretext. Again, the effect has been to expand the power of legislators and bureaucrats into areas our Founding Fathers tried to put beyond their reach.

The result of such changes has been an increase in the power of a few government officials to do what our Constitution formerly ruled out, and this has led to governance that is a far cry from one pri marily concerned with promoting the general wel fare. Once these powers have been seized by gov ernment, concentrating them further in illimitable legislators can worsen the results. But reforms such as term limits would not solve the underlying problem: government theft (involuntary transac tions where some are made worse offis a necessary corollary of violating either the takings clause or the general welfare requirement); it would only alter who would be allowed to do it. As term limits became law,parties could control seats through a series of candidates instead of through particular party members, especially as squeezing party contributors and gerrymandering become more precise sciences. Substituting party power for that of individual members may well move our government farther from its Constitu tional ideal. Term limits could also make legisla tors even more keenly aware of their future job prospects, increasing special interest influence over those involved in current legislation. Further, making all elected officialsmore transitory would increase the power of the unelected, permanent bureaucracy, hardly a prescription for more responsible government.

Reforms such as term limits attempt to address aspects of irresponsible government that are unfortunately far from its core. Unless the Consti tution's restrictions on government powers are taken more seriously,term limitations willdo little to produce a more responsible government. In fact, absent a return to the more limited role for government envisioned in the Constitution, there are no "reforms" that are likely to substantially reduce government abuse. D The Nature of Political Power W hen the nature of political power is put under the microscope of analysis, its incorrigible penchant for predation becomes under standable. For then one sees that political power is not "in the nature of things," but in the nature of man. It is not, like the force of gravity, self-operating and inexorable, but is an expedient devised by man to facili tate his urge for acquiring satisfactions with the least expenditure of labor.

In essence, political power is the physical power, or the threat of it, that one man or a group of men may bring to bear on other men to effect behavior. It may originate in a body of social sanctions, but it is hardly political power until these sanctions are implemented with a police force. In any case, it is exercised by human beings, and therefore must be related to the all-perva sive law of human action, the drive to get the most for the least. -FRANK CHODOROV "A Case of Corruption" IDEAS ON LIBERTY 113 EconoDlic DevelopDlent or Economic Disaster? by Bill Anderson I n the past decade, Chattanooga's downtown district has undergone a virtual face lift. Parks have been created, trees have been planted, new buildings have been built, and old ones improved. The city and county governments have constructed a gleaming trade and exhibition cen ter with a high-rise hotel attached, while the Ten nessee Valley Authority, a Federally owned utility, built a massive downtown office complex.