At some point one might argue that it becomes worth asking if it's better to have a monarch who fears revolution or an elected body that fears not being re-elected.
We have plenty of 'monarchs who fear revolution' today. A monarch is simply a hereditary autocrat, and there are tons of autocrats in the from of dictators today. It's no guarantee of even a mildly reasonable quality of life - indeed, scanning through a list of countries sorted by a quality of life index didn't show any autocratic countries in the top 50: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-of-life_Index
Edit: there is one - Qatar in spot #41
The way I see it, the basic problem of government is "how do we get honest and competent people into power?"
Unfortunately, most of the people who desire power aren't the kind of honest people we'd like in power. The ideal system would be less about how to get the honest in power, and more about how to control for corruption.
Fair enough. My main point is that those in power should be held more responsible, not less, for their actions. Currently, in the US, those in power very rarely feel personal consequences of performing poorly.
On the other point, yes, it's an old old idea that you should give power to those that are refusing it the most. Ideally, once again, a transparent government where everyone is held responsible individually, not in their position, will fear its people and will be much less likely to become corrupt.
On the other point, yes, it's an old old idea that you should give power to those that are refusing it the most.
This is an adage to be said over a few beers, but doesn't really work in real life. Plenty of folks would heartily refuse to govern while also being incapable of governing. Refusal of power doesn't equate to proficiency in governance.
Your first point is the real goal - checks and balances. Just today in the paper here in Aus, there are reports of a freshly retired politician who had his wife on payroll for quite a nice amount, but the staff in the office report never having seen her for three years. All up it'll be a couple of hundred thousand worth in fraud, but will he actually get anything more than a slap on the wrist? How different would be the treatment if it was welfare fraud instead?
a transparent government... will fear its people
The idea of a government being scared of its constituents is a peculiarly American viewpoint; that things should be kept in place by fear of putting a foot wrong. Checks and balances should obviously be there, but the semantics of philosophically starting out from a place of fear is just bizarre.
The US is very much into polarising anything political into two groups (government vs people in this case) - very odd given that it's got one of the greatest varieties of cultures on the planet.
Heh. I never thought of it any other way. No I don't think that people who work for the government should actually experience fear when doing their jobs. I use the term "government should fear its people" as a turn of phrase to mean that the government that is elected by the people to serve the people should perhaps face very direct consequences when it fails. For example, when a congress fails to perform its basic function of passing a budget, the whole lot of them should be recalled as they are clearly unable to perform a simple task. So by fear I really mean "respect and be accountable to".
Edit: regarding giving power to the unwilling: my point was that extreme want of power is a negative when it comes to a candidate, but a lack of that specific type of ambition is a necessary but insufficient qualification.
Well, if that politician had feared anything - public outcry, mob action, loss of reputation, consequences of his fraudulent action - he might not have done what he did.
Not to say that politicians should go to work daily with trembling anxiety. But it would really help if they dreaded letting their constituents down (on the negative emotion side) and aspired to serve their constituents honorably (on the positive emotion side).
We have plenty of 'monarchs who fear revolution' today. A monarch is simply a hereditary autocrat, and there are tons of autocrats in the from of dictators today. It's no guarantee of even a mildly reasonable quality of life - indeed, scanning through a list of countries sorted by a quality of life index didn't show any autocratic countries in the top 50: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-of-life_Index
Edit: there is one - Qatar in spot #41
The way I see it, the basic problem of government is "how do we get honest and competent people into power?"
Unfortunately, most of the people who desire power aren't the kind of honest people we'd like in power. The ideal system would be less about how to get the honest in power, and more about how to control for corruption.