Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World

For many decades, the world needed to learn from America. But now America needs to learn from the world. And what it most needs to learn about is government—not big or small but good government.

Simply enlarging the size of government does little to solve societal problems. Good government is about limited power but clear lines of authority. It is about giving officials autonomy, discretion, and the ability to exercise their own judgment. It requires recruiting bright, devoted people who are inspired by the chance to serve their country and earn respect for doing it. This is not something that can be created overnight, but it can be done.

there is ample evidence that

the political theorist Samuel Huntington once explained, power in America is not divided, as is often said, but rather shared and contested, so that you need broad agreement and compromise to get anything done.

America has become what Francis Fukuyama calls a “vetocracy.” The system of checks and balances, replicated at every level of government, ensures that someone, somewhere can always block any positive action.

must all be dutifully followed.

For four decades, America has largely been run by people who openly pledge to destroy the very government they lead. Is it any wonder that they have succeeded?

but still constrained it in many ways.

drawing on its cultural roots for social cohesion

For Plato, democracy—the rule of the masses—and oligarchy—the rule of the rich—were dangerous because these were forms of government motivated by self-interest, lacking a higher purpose. They were also unstable, almost always degrading into the worst kind of regime, tyranny.