Frustration

"Frustrating and messy" is the way our president describes the American democracy. Millions of people share Barack Obama's dissatisfaction with the political process of our republic. Frustration escalates in times when, at the end of recessions, the labor market is slow to catch up with the rest of the economy. In this situation, the president is wise to portray himself as a man who is willing to seek compromise in order to get the job done. After such a rhetorical maneuver, the pressure of negative public opinion will be mounting on the Republicans in Congress to make their own compromises so that new bills that stimulate job creation and "promote the general welfare" can get passed without delay.

Providentially, there are those among our representatives who seem willing to resist the expansion of government on principle and against populist demands. Acting as the "party of no" is unlikely to be a winning strategy for next year's presidential election, though it may be the only way to preserve our system of checks and balances. This, of course, is not a new development in the history of western democracy. Seventy years ago Friedrich Hayek wrote about Europe's dissatisfaction with the inability of their parliaments "to carry out what seems to be a clear mandate of the people."

The problem of American democracy in the 21st century is the same problem encountered by the Europeans before World War II. Even though some of the men and women in politics seem too proud for their own good (and ours), it is not fundamentally a problem of boneheaded leadership. The problem lies in our inability to recognize the limitations of the political institutions we create. The contradiction arises from the tasks with which we charge our government. The problem is, we do not ask our representatives, as Hayek suggested, "to act where they can agree, but to produce agreement on everything." But Hayek added, "It is a superstition to believe that there must be a majority view on everything." It is the existence of a multitude of alternatives in market choices that disqualify our political elites from playing the role of economic planners.