Politicians and government officials love to refer to themselves as “public servants”. Now that we are getting into the next presidential election cycle, we will probably hear this often. Let’s get real here. No one in government is a public servant.
The American myth is that democratic government serves everyone equally. The reality is, and always has been from the beginning of central state control in any society, that the government, whatever political form it takes, disproportionately serves the powerful and wealthy, in and out of government. We profess to the shocked and outraged when we discover that someone has taken advantage of their government position for personal gain, but unless we are terribly naïve, we have always known that those in power cannot resist using at least some of their power for their own benefit.
Certainly the public, at least in our society, get something from the government. The powerful aren’t stupid. They know that in a democracy the government has to deliver enough benefits to keep the electorate paying their taxes and voting for the party. And when politicians compete for our votes, they know they have to promise to deliver something appealing, and even deliver at least some of what they promise. But in fact our government budget is so large that even if the powerful only skim off a few billion a year, there is still enough to do some useful things for the rest of us.
Politicians and government officials with power have been bought from time immemorial. Not perhaps so often with direct bribes, but certainly with little favors, re-election help, nice “fact finding” trips, campaign funds, jobs for family members, promises of lucrative jobs once they leave office, and the like. Notice the high paying lobbying and business jobs congressmen and high level bureaucrats go to when they leave government. Things are no different now than they have always been. There are certainly a few thoroughly honest politicians here and there, but there won’t be many because except for local and some state races it’s hard to get elected without powerful and wealthy backers who, quite naturally, expect something back from their investment.
Of course, democratic governments are not monolithic – there are opposition parties. But their battles are primarily over which faction of the powerful and wealthy will control the levers of power, not about who will work for the good of the people. This is every bit as true of the socialist and communist governments as of our capitalist government.
Even more duplicitous than the “public servant” claim is the “power to the people” slogan so widely used by revolutionary movements. What the people get is the chance to lose their homes, families and lives in the service of the cause. Notice that in the end the power, and all the nice perks that go with it, always goes to the leaders.
This is simply human nature. All institutions of any size operate by the exchange of favors between the powerful and their supporters. It’s sometimes called “networking” or “seeking allies”, but it comes down to the same thing – the local old boy’s/girl’s network scratching each others backs. It’s the way the world works, and always has worked.
Unless we are one of the wealthy and powerful who would benefit, we ought always to be careful about supporting the expansion of either the size or the power of government, however enticing the supposed benefits appear. Chances are such changes will help someone, but probably not us.
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