The social organisation of individuals under the jurisdiction of, and as participants in government can be defined by three broad categories. These are; the intrinsic, the emergent and the dispossesive. These can be used to inform the extent of government, and derive its responsibilities.
Intrinsic
The intrinsic categories are the conditions that need to be met for and individual to agree to government, and for the government to be legitimate. One of the intrinsic values of an individual is a natural defiance of tyranny. Whether by action, or social organization, individuals seek to remove tyranny from their interactions. Tyranny is being under the arbitrary will of another, especially in the respect of an individual's person or property.
Australian Republicanism is devoted to defeating tyranny in government, not matter what its form, and ensuring that all individuals under the jurisdiction of a government, are, without exception, secure in their political rights. These begin with the freedom from government tyranny. As soon as a government practices tyranny against an individual, or minority, then it is no longer legitimate.
Without the protection of an individuals political rights, there is no reason for an individual to agree to be under the government. If the oppression is so strong, then an individual would be better off in nature without government. This assumes of course that a government would allow the individual to do so. In most cases, particularly nation-state, immigration is tightly controlled, and new members of the population have little choice.
The intrinsic component of social organisation raises the democrat as the dominating political philosophy. One where government is permanently responsible to the people, if not directly populated by the people. Representative government was developed in a time where property was held by a small number of people, where education was a privilege and while communications came no faster than a horse or sailing ship.
Today we live in a society where a significant minority are as well educated as the leaders of Executive government. Where communications have been transformed into a global decentralised network, of such low cost, that everyone can be a publisher. There is also more equality in wealth and property, due to the rise of the middle class in the twentieth century. It is in this environment that the democrat must discern new political technologies and methods to guarantee our political rights, and the responsiveness of government to the people.
Social, cultural and economic prosperity is impossible without maximum liberty.
Emergent
Complex systems interact in a way that makes their output greater than the sum of their inputs. These can be termed the emergent properties. This would include society, culture and economy. Quality engineers often spend a great deal of time mapping and charting their complex system through statistical modelling, and then intrude upon them by what is known as "selective tampering". Unless every input and output is known, this selective tampering often makes the system vary more in quality, rather than hone it. As a consequence Quality Engineers use reductionism to try and make the inputs and outputs known.
In very large complex system, the inputs and outputs are largely unknown - simply due to the sheer size of the system, and the near infinite number of possible interactions. In these systems, interference, or selective tampering in nearly all cases results in an inferior outcome. This is because interference adds a cost to interaction between actors in the system. Hampering the natural outcome.
Government does have a role as not only an actor in the system, but often simply because of its economic size and its ability to legislate through its monopoly on violence, as a dominantly influential actor. It is a yellow point. Currently the government consumes about 35% of Australia's GDP in taxation. This makes it by far the largest economic actor in Australia.
This is not necessarily a good thing. Government is by structure, and design, a centralised system which collapses political, coercive and economic power into a few individuals. This skews, and often obliterates the emergent properties of a society, culture and economy. Since World War II, and in particular the 1980s, Australians have been sensitive to government involvement in the economy, believing that it produces inferior outcomes in relation to the creation of wealth, and the economy's ability to meet a market.
However, we have also seen in the last fifty years a willingness for government to interfere in societal and cultural issues. More recently we have seen the self-professed "culture wars", which is government and conservative commenteriat backed. Society and culture are complex emergent systems which work more efficiently without government intervention. They are no different to the economy in this aspect.
Dispossessive
The existence of the state carries its own burden. These are commonly externalised in the form of taxes. A common phrase is that taxes buy civilisation. In reality, taxes buy a judicial system which can hold-off tyranny and ensure that interactions between individuals have an equitable basis.
The establishment of social programs such as unemployment benefits and pensions have helped remove the troughs and stings in poverty. Empirical evidence shows the social value of such programs. It would be silly to deny their use, and that government has no role in these areas. By the same token, any of these programs should be predicated by the emergent properties defining them. For instance, it is perfectly acceptable for a society to decide that there is a level of poverty no-one should fall below. It is also perfectly acceptable for a society to decide there is a level of access to health that no-one should be denied. It is not acceptable for government to decide these things for society.
Government involvement in these areas carries danger, not only from government inertia to change, but because government involvement infringes on liberty and inevitably retards the emergent process of society, culture and economy. For this reason any social program must be founded in empirical studies to ensure they have true benefit, and are not ideological fashion, or populist pandering. This is true for all government action.
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