This is related to something I've been thinking about lately and trying to find sources to read up on: is an elected form of government with term limits inherently limited to short-term thinking? If you take it as fact that people are going to promote what's in their own self-interest, and then limit someone's seat in office to 4 or 8 years, then it seems like it ends up with nobody ever really caring about the long-term. If Bush knows he'll be gone in a few years, why not start a war with Iraq? If Obama won't have to deal with the consequences of 10 years of spending on healthcare, why not do it?
But that's an entirely separate issue to the one raised in the original post, and I'll try to be on topic at least some of the way. (And if the above paragraph is actually something people have thought about, I'd love some suggestions on books/blogs/whatever.)
Localism makes sense to me in a lot of ways. I can't say that I'm very familiar with it being applied that often here in the US except for in the 'not in my back yard!' type of protest sense. I've seen some ballots go by over the years that are designed to, for example, make it illegal to put up that Wal-Mart they want to put up. Lots of litigation when people try to pull stunts like that, too.
(Of course, with my move-every-2-years history, it's been pretty difficult to personally get that into the local politics. I suppose now that I'm in California for the long haul, I'll learn more about here...)
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Date: 2010-03-15 06:56 pm (UTC)But that's an entirely separate issue to the one raised in the original post, and I'll try to be on topic at least some of the way. (And if the above paragraph is actually something people have thought about, I'd love some suggestions on books/blogs/whatever.)
Localism makes sense to me in a lot of ways. I can't say that I'm very familiar with it being applied that often here in the US except for in the 'not in my back yard!' type of protest sense. I've seen some ballots go by over the years that are designed to, for example, make it illegal to put up that Wal-Mart they want to put up. Lots of litigation when people try to pull stunts like that, too.
(Of course, with my move-every-2-years history, it's been pretty difficult to personally get that into the local politics. I suppose now that I'm in California for the long haul, I'll learn more about here...)