A hypothesis. Democracy in its modern Western form is wedded to the ideal of the rule of law. The rule of law means, among other things, transparency and accountability. Transparency and accountability require reliable paper trails relating to every decision and action of the representatives of the democratic State: what was decided, when, and on what grounds? Reliable paper trails require rules as to when written material is required, what format and content it should have, and where the documents should be stored and can be retrieved. Rules mean the absence of choice. The absence of choice means that there is no freedom to flexibly handle different situations. When the rule of law is taken seriously and driven to the point where the requirements of transparency and accountability apply to every public official and his or her actions, every public official must produce paper trails for each of his or her actions or decisions. There will be no freedom to prioritise other tasks over the filling in, and filing, of forms. When schools, medical services, and a whole host of other services are provided by the democratic Western State, therefore, teachers, doctors, and a whole host of other professions will, under the rule of law as thus understood, have to devote much of their time to producing the required paper trails, leaving less time for what those professionals fundamentally are expected to do, viz. teaching, treating patients, etc. The ever-increasing administrative burden about which many professionals in many Western countries complain, therefore, is a result of the rule of law, which in its turn is a result of the way we understand democratic government. A reduction of the administrative burden, therefore, seems to require that we leave such services outside the democratic State, or, in other words, that either some aspects of the State are accepted to be non-democratic, or that the State cease to provide certain services. Any thoughts?
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 10:02:21 +0000
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