last one

 

You made it! Last discussion of the semester! Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? 🙂

As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, this is the first opportunity that many of you have had to consider the role of government in your life, and, more specifically, the relationships between the various levels of government, and how those relationships affect your everyday life.

In that spirit, I would like you to consider and discuss the following:

How do you think your life in particular, and societal life in general, would change/improve/deteriorate if we were somehow to abolish all levels of government, save one, in the United States? In other words, what if we had no state or local government, only a federal government that dealt with all aspects of governing life, from waging war to providing police and fire services? Or if we had no federal or local government, only a singular state government, whichever state you may live in, that did likewise, handling all governmental responsibilities and voluntarily contributing resources to “national” interests, i.e. fighting war? 

This concept is not as unusual as you might think. Many nations have only a single national government that handles all functions. Some nations have essentially no national government, only a voluntary coordination between “states” within their borders. Going back a little further in time, the concept of “city-states”, wherein there was only local government, and voluntary coordination between localities on important issues, provided similar framework. How do you think that arrangement might translate to the United States in terms of your own well being and/or that of society? 

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