Constitution, Government

To be legitimate, government's powers must be grounded in the consent of the governed.

Constitution is the supreme law of the land. "The Constitution", pledged George Washington, "is the guide which I will never abandon".  Nepal is currently in verge of creation of a new constitution. The perpetuation of this new document would be possible if the Constituent Assembly adequately directed attention to individual liberty and limited government in contrast to other six constitutions promulgated since late 1940s. The root of successful constitutionalism stem from the right to the property.   It means resources at hand make people less vulnerable to exploitation.   The constitution, hence, does not derail from the track.  

The Constitution delineates the structure of government and the rules for its operation, consistent with the creed of human liberty.   The structure of government, as devised, should be strong enough to ensure nation's future strength and prosperity but without sufficient power to threaten the liberty of the people.    The philosophic basis of the successful constitutionalism lies on 'that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, which among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness'.   

Hence fundamental rights exist by nature, prior to government and conventional laws.   It is because these individual rights are left unsecured that governments are instituted among men.  The natural standard for judging if a government is legitimate is whether the government rests on the consent of the governed.   Any political powers are not derived from the consent of the governed are, by the laws of nature, illegitimate and hence unjust.

A situation exists hence, where, the people are self-governing in their communities, religions, and social institutions, and into which the government may intrude only with the people's consent.   There exists between the people and limited government a vast social space in which men and women, in their individual and corporate capacities, may exercise their self-governing liberty.

Constitution supports legitimate popular government that is accountable.   That a form of government accountable to the people, leaving them fundamentally in charge of their own destinies, best protected human liberty.  It reiterates that to have government no legitimate existence outside of the Constitution. By creating an independent judiciary constitution checks the separation of power, to make government remain accountable.   

Expansive governments threaten people's liberty.   Limited governments, in contrast, protect people's rights and are the magnificent greatest accomplishments of humanity.   Limited government lacks concentrations of coercive power and the arbitrary use of power against people's rights to live freely.    Successful governments are with deep appreciation for the lessons of history and the dangers of unconstrained rulings, they are constitutionally limited, with the delegated authority and means to protect the rights of the people, but not so powerful as to destroy or negate them.

In order to preserve its comport with the natural rights any individual is entitled to live with, the constitution separates the power among the judicial, legislative and executive branches.   It is about limited governments, about checks and balances among the divided powers, about redress and representation, and about the right of resistance, made effective by the legal right to bear arms (for self-defense), an ancient right of free persons.   The law is, thus drafted to protect the rights of people, the supremacy of the law over the exercise of power. The rule of law is not satisfied by merely formal or ceremonial exercises, it must be understandable and actually capable of being followed.

The constitution spells rights in contractual forms.   These rights are not gifts from the powerful, which could be taken away on a whim, but something on which one could take a stand.

Economic System

An economic system is a particular set of social institutions which deals with the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services in a particular society. The economic system is composed of people and institutions, including their relationships to productive resources, such as through the convention of property. It addresses the problems of economics, such as the allocation of scarce resources in a given economy. Examples of contemporary economic systems include capitalist systems, socialist systems, and mixed economies. Economic systems are the category of economics that includes the study of respective systems (wikipaedia.org). 

The state has no responsibility to engage in intervention to maintain a desired wealth distribution or to create a welfare state to protect people from poverty, instead relying on charity and the market system. IT should also embody the notion that a government should not be in the business of granting privileges. As such, the idea that the government should not create legal monopolies or use coercion to protect it.  The trade must be free trade on the grounds that the state should not use protectionist measures, such as tariffs and subsidies, in order to curtail trade through national frontiers.

It is the idea of the laissez-faire economics that will bring about a spontaneous order or invisible hand that benefits the society, though it does not necessarily oppose the state's provision of a few basic public goods that the market is seen as being incapable of providing.   Classical liberalism places a particular emphasis on the sovereignty of the individual, with private property rights being seen as essential to individual liberty.

The government should involve itself to increase liberty and prosperity, by empowering the entrepreneurs and to abolish monopolies, and the protectionist policies of mercantilism so as to encourage entrepreneurship and increase productive efficiency.  They also expected democracy and laissez-faire economics to diminish the frequency of war.  It is the best way to achieve the long-lasting peace!

Judicial System

The judiciary or judicial system is the system of courts which administer justice in the name of the sovereign or state, a mechanism for the resolution of disputes.  The term is also used to refer collectively to the judges, magistrates and other adjudicators who form the core of a judiciary, as well as the support personnel who keep the system running smoothly.  Under the doctrine of the separation of powers, the judiciary is the branch of government primarily responsible for interpreting the law (wikpaedia.org).

A court is a public forum used by a power base to adjudicate disputes and dispense civil, labor, administrative and criminal justice under its laws. In common law and civil law states, courts are the central means for dispute resolution, and it is generally understood that all persons have an ability to bring their claims before a court. Similarly, those accused of a crime have the right to present their defense before a court.

The courts often are called the guardians of the Constitution because their rulings protect rights and liberties guaranteed by it.  Through fair and impartial judgments, the courts interpret and apply the law to resolve disputes. The courts do not make the laws. That is the responsibility of legislature or parliament.  Nor do the courts have the power to enforce the laws. That is the role of the executive branch departments and agencies.

Judicial System should uphold the integrity and independence while performing impartially and diligently and are refrained from the political activities.

According to Code of Conducts of Judges in USA ‘An independent and honorable judiciary is indispensable to justice in our society. A judge should participate in establishing, maintaining, and enforcing high standards of conduct, and should personally observe those standards, so that the integrity and independence of the judiciary may be preserved. The provisions of this Code should be construed and applied to further that objective (http://www.uscourts.gov/guide/vol2/ch1.html).

Political System

A political system is a system of politics and government. It is usually compared to the law system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems. It is different from them, and can be generally defined on a spectrum from left, i.e. communism, anarchism and socialism to the right, i.e. fascism and conservatism. However, none are in these pure forms, therefore most are somewhere in the middle where capitalism is. Australia is a prime example of being centre right (wikipaedia.org).

Recent theoretical and empirical research confirms the first answer: those political systems that maximize and guarantee individual freedom are least violence prone; those that maximize the subordination of all individual behavior to state control (totalitarian systems) the most, whether socialist or not; and wars do not occur between democracies. Most often, Democracy is the discriminatory system of rule. It differentiates between the citizens. It makes system failure.   In theory, democracy is a bulwark against socially harmful policies. In practice, however, democracies frequently adopt and maintain policies that are damaging. How can this paradox be explained?   Alternative to democracy exists, its limited government which ensures the absolute freedom to the citizens.   The limited government means restraint of concentrations of coercive power and to the arbitrary use of power against right.   The lessons of history and the dangers of unconstrained indicts us for constitutionally limited government, with the delegated authority and means to protect our rights, but not so powerful as to destroy or negate them.

Education System

Being educated is a matter of personal choice. Government neither can impose mandatory education system nor collect tax to finance the education as a free lunch.    Education should be left to those who are in the best position to oversee it- families.  The government has no right to involve in any decision regarding education.

Public secondary education is a total failure (as evident from every other year's dismal performance of the public schools), and so is the public universities where government funds directly.  

Of course, education normally begins with the children. We love children. Perhaps that's obvious.   All of us care deeply about children. You care about children, about what happens to society when good things happen with, to, and by our children. They are our legacy, our one opportunity to slide a foot inside the door of a place called "the future" and perhaps even to stroll about a bit in the possibilities that live there. In fact, it's a place we often prefer to call "hope."

We have to always keep in focus that what we are seeking is children's success.   In the education arena, we often hear of student satisfaction, teacher satisfaction, and even parental satisfaction, but these are byproducts, not the ultimate goal. Our goal is success, not process.

The desire for freedom, self-determination, personal dignity, choice, equality, and respect for people and for private property are not the sole domain of one country or people, but are those things that stir in the heart of every person simply because they are human, and these values beat within the breast of all people.   History demonstrates that these are values that lead to societal and personal success and satisfaction. 

An interesting thing happens when people have more real choices in their lives, whether it involves education or other matters. A dynamic marketplace appears, a marketplace fueled by people acting in the exercise of their freedom and determining what is best for them. Competition between providers in a marketplace begins to bring higher and higher quality for a lower and lower overall cost. The intrinsic human values of freedom, self-determination, choice, and respect must not be resisted in our education innovations, but embraced, since to ignore them is to beg for failure.

School choice has always been available to those who can move their family to an area with a desirable school or afford to pay for private schooling.   The principles of parental empowerment and educational opportunity are shaping the education policy debate as more policymakers realize the benefits that choice holds for the nation's children.

Over the years of the development the government has provided an increasingly massive amount of higher education funding.   The grant by the government to the university has not produced the results that an employer is wants to hire.  There is growing unemployment, or even if graduated under-paid.  

Hence the government should:

Institute school choice on a wide scale.
Stop spending money on ineffective public school reforms
Phase out aid to the Tribhuvan University and other universities.

© 2008, Limited Government (Nepal), PO Box 8973, NPC 191, Kathmandu, Nepal
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