I often wonder what CONgressmen see in Sonia Gandhi that they "follow" her and are "loyal." Sonia's latest statement makes no sense whatsoever. In her desire to "take corruption head-on" she has "written letters to Union Ministers and state chief ministers asking them to give up their discretionary powers especially in land allotment issues."
Perhaps Sonia is unaware as to how land in Nude Elly has been governed for many decades now - as a monopoly of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). Further, that the DDA is not answerable to the government of Delhi, for it functions directly under the control of the Central State. The "DDA model" became so popular with all state governments that DDA clones have come up everywhere. This illustrates a relationship between totalitarianism (which is "socialism") and bureaucracy that Ludwig von Mises was the first to note - which is surely why his Bureaucracy is not the prescribed text for students of Public Administration, who are pointed to Max Weber instead.
Try and understand a totalitarian mind like that of Indira Gandhi, in whose time the DDA was established. Rulers like her who seek "total control" are themselves in command of two hierarchical organisations - the Party and the Bureaucracy. These are their only "agents" of total control. The totalitarian therefore proceeds into expanding the range and scope of bureaucratic controls - placing lower Party functionaries to oversee them. This is the overall "design" of Totalitarian Democracy.
The Party controls Parliament - and so this design is put into effect through Legislation. It is Legislation that creates endless bureaus and "empowers" them. Thus, the RTI Act does not empower the citizenry; rather, the National Rural Employment Act empowers the baboos with a Big Budget! Ditto for the "right to free and compulsory education": Big Budget. Ditto again for "right to food": Very Big Budget.
Mises said that this was "totalitarianism through delegation": that the democratic "representatives" were in reality oppressing the public through this systematic extension of the powers and scope of The State and its agencies - and its Budget.
There is but one solution: Inviolability of Private Property.
Unlimited taxation and public borrowing are also violations of the private properties of citizens.
Ludwig von Mises was no anarchist. He was a firm believer in government as a protector of Property and Liberty - and he even possessed a naive faith in democracy. But this was not a blind faith, for he clearly saw deterioration in US democracy.
Mises wrote this book in the early 1940s, shortly after the Nazis forced him to flee to America. This book was written specifically to warn Americans of the dangers of bureaucratisation - something Americans then had no experience of, while he, having lived in Old Europe, knew it only too well. Interestingly, he was then working at the National Bureau of Economic Research. During this stint, he also wrote a monograph on the evils of interventionism; this was translated into English - but only saw publication after his death. NBER obviously didn't like his message.
Mises was an old school "paleo-liberal" - and he knew well what bureaucracy is meant for. He knew Max Weber personally, and even contributed to the latter's rejection of socialism. All students of Public Administration should carefully study Ludwig von Mises' Bureaucracy - so that they do not fall prey to the machinations of depraved totalitarian politicians. This book should replace Max Weber.
There is a section in the book titled "The bureaucrat as voter" where Mises makes the interesting point that when bureaucrats willingly work to swell the budgets and powers of The State, they fail to see themselves as also part of the general public they emerge from. This is a kind of "schizophrenia" - quite like that of the protectionist-producer who is blind to his life as a consumer, a mental disease I wrote of the other day.
When The State goes completely nuts the whole of Society - and civilisation itself - is ruined. Bureaucrats in the USSA and Europe should see the havoc they are causing. The same applies to our chaps in India. They should look at the mess they have made of all our cities and towns and mend their ways. They are not Nazi soldiers, bound to obey.
Our bureaucrats should think of The Market not as an enemy to oppose, but as the social institution that will save humanity from the destruction that errant governments have caused. Their own children and grand-children will prosper in The Market. And they will all enjoy life in good cities and towns - if we fix them by getting rid of DDA-style totalitarianism. Our bureaucrats must stop thinking like CONgressmen. Theirs is the evil ideology that has converted administration into racketeering.
No comments:
Post a Comment