Books of Grievances and Citizens’ Desires
Despite the necessity for politicians to be in dialogue with citizens, the fundamental question remains: is politics there to fulfil the desires of citizens, or is its role merely to create the framework in which free citizens can shape their lives through self-determination? A commentary by Karl von Habsburg.
Emmanuel Macron, the French President, intends to use assemblies to summarise the concerns of citizens and incorporate them into his policies. In the “cahiers de doléances” of Louis XVI, he has a historical precedent. At that time, between 40,000 and 60,000 such books of grievances were collected. How Macron intends to implement his project remains to be seen; one can only hope that it does not lead to another bloodbath as it did in history.
Such assemblies, organised from above, and such books of grievances, issued by state power, are naturally a double-edged sword. They suggest that the state can solve the citizens’ problems. They define an incentive system that misleads citizens into expecting the state to solve their problems and realise their visions of happiness. But that is exactly what the state can only do to a very limited extent. If a healthcare system does not exist, the state can contribute to establishing one. If there is no infrastructure, it can help ensure that this infrastructure is created.
However, the further the state is expanded, the less it can serve the individual visions of happiness or welfare of its citizens. It then engages in clientelism for the benefit of one group at the expense of another. The state thus becomes bureaucratic and expensive. Taxpayers bear the burden of many desires, yet they hardly have the chance to realise their own life goals through their own efforts. Personal responsibility, achievement, freedom, and self-determination are pushed back; the state becomes paternalistic and thus hostile to liberty.
Felix Somary described this in his 20 social laws of inverted proportions. In the fourth law, he states: “The more functions a state assumes, the harder its administration is to control.” In the fifth: “The larger and more versatile the state, the more powerless the people.”
This paternalistic state goes far beyond the task of the liberal constitutional state. Its task is not to enforce individual visions of happiness or welfare, for it can only do so through laws and regulations (i.e., coercion), which in turn restrict the liberties of those who have different visions of happiness and welfare. The task of the state can only be to create that legal framework which enables free citizens to shape their own lives without infringing upon the liberties of other citizens.
The greatest challenge for today’s politician probably lies in recommitting to exactly this principle.
This article originally appeared on the website of Karl von Habsburg.
