Government’s Proper Role: When to Keep It Local and When to Scale Up: A Constitutional Framework
A nation of 350 million people cannot have small government in any meaningful sense, but size and focus are different things. The question isn’t whether government should be large or small – it’s whether government at each level minds its own business and focuses on what genuinely requires that level of coordination. This framework provides clear criteria for when to keep decisions local and when higher-level intervention becomes necessary, based on constitutional principles of consent of the governed and protecting life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.