Post by Drychnath on Apr 30, 2006 17:46:41 GMT -5
Consider for the purposes of the argument that the government is the apparatus, processes, and personnel by which directives are carried out within a political domain, independent of the generator of those directives.
According to the dominant political theories today, government serves one of two purposes.
The first, championed liberal democratic systems of government, is that the government exists to promote and serve the interests of the People.
The second, still percievable in the current political climate but secondary to the first after a series of defeats over the last 60 years, is that the government exists to promote and serve the interests of the State, independant of the People.
I propose here, however, that government serves yet a third purpose in the right circumstances. There are times and places where neither of these two defined purposes could be accurate. These are the governments of conquest and conquerors, the governments of great men: and they do not fulfil either previously expressed purpose.
Instead, the government under the hand of a great man serves the interests of that man. The purpose of the government is no longer to benefit the People, or the intangible State, but to mobilize and maintain the resources of the domain so that they might be used to further the will of said great man. The tribute of taxes or foreign nations spent as he wills; the people working where and on what he wills; the armies moving and destroying as he wills. The bureaucratic functions of government all serve to promote this singular purpose: the will of a singular individual.
Such is the pre-eminent individuality.
According to the dominant political theories today, government serves one of two purposes.
The first, championed liberal democratic systems of government, is that the government exists to promote and serve the interests of the People.
The second, still percievable in the current political climate but secondary to the first after a series of defeats over the last 60 years, is that the government exists to promote and serve the interests of the State, independant of the People.
I propose here, however, that government serves yet a third purpose in the right circumstances. There are times and places where neither of these two defined purposes could be accurate. These are the governments of conquest and conquerors, the governments of great men: and they do not fulfil either previously expressed purpose.
Instead, the government under the hand of a great man serves the interests of that man. The purpose of the government is no longer to benefit the People, or the intangible State, but to mobilize and maintain the resources of the domain so that they might be used to further the will of said great man. The tribute of taxes or foreign nations spent as he wills; the people working where and on what he wills; the armies moving and destroying as he wills. The bureaucratic functions of government all serve to promote this singular purpose: the will of a singular individual.
Such is the pre-eminent individuality.