JUDGING PAROCHIAL FEDERALISM, XIII

 

An advocate of parochial federalism continues his/her presentation[1] …

Student Economic Interests [2] (cont.)

          The last posting zeroed in on this blog’s continuing reportage on the debate among the American people (and with some, within themselves) over two forces that often lure people in opposite directions.  A catchy title for the debate could be “virtue vs. interest.”  The virtue side concerns itself with the common good (a topic that deserves its own analysis) and takes on a moral sense that relates a definition for virtue to the common good.  The interest side is, of course, is the self-centered sense as to what one what wants, usually inspired by passion and emotions.

          Not all of these passions and emotions are based on selfish aims.  They can be directed to advancing the wellbeing of one’s family, neighbors, friends, and other acquaintances.  But too often, unfortunately, they are selfish and often are pitted against the wellbeing of a community, a state, or a nation.  And one can find this challenge emerge when one investigates the business class.

To the extent any civic message might take on importance in a civics classroom – that is, a study into how one should decide in a given situation where virtue is pitted against interest, or vice-versa – one can only speculate.  As of today, there is evidence that the distinction Robert Dahl identifies (and was quoted in the last posting [3]) still reflects what is brewing among the American public. 

Here is one study that suggests to which direction many Americans, including the youth, seem to aspire.

 

The study generated responses from 1,250 adults and highlights trends across various industries. 

The study shows that 2 in 5 people plan to start a business this year. Forty-seven percent of Americans who want to start a business are currently working for an employer, 34% are self-employed and 19% are unemployed. Fifty-five percent of aspiring new business owners will leave their current jobs within the next 12 months. 

According to the survey, most future business owners who plan to leave their jobs are from the health care, construction, education and finance industries. Employees in the health care and social assistance industry account for 8% of aspiring entrepreneurs. Construction workers and education employees represent 8% and 7% of people who want to start a business respectively.[4] 

 

Is this relevant?  This blogger believes it is.  No, it is not to say that starting a business is anti-communal or against the common good.  Such an effort might even advance those concerns.  But starting a business calls for courage, self-assuredness, and an optimistic outlook on life, the national scene, and one’s abilities.  It prioritizes for most how one advances self-interest. 

And as this blog has repeatedly argued:  that’s okay, as long as one does not choose, in seeking that self-interest, a course of action that counters the common good.  Within that parameter, parochial federalism-inspired instruction at school could help assure that a young entrepreneur does not cross that line.  But before elaborating on this guidepost, one more point should be made concerning the role this debate has had on the establishment and development of the US.

Madisonian federalism, as J. G. A. Pocock shares the views of various commentators, was a system that could allow for the self-centeredness of people to run in an unlimited fashion.  But given the ground rules that the nation’s constitution allows and encourages, such a system would create protocols where these interest positions (among the populace and among the pols) would check each other from being abusive.[5]  In addition, since the system is large – being a national market and/or arena – no one or a limited set of interests would be able to take control.[6] 

To the extent that this is either true in terms of what Madison helped set up or merely what he set out to do, parochial federalism does not agree with this being an attribute of federalism.  Why?  Because it undermines the whole rationale of a compact, that being a shared sense of partnership that a compact-al agreement strives to be.  Instead, parochial federalism would merely consider these attributes of the republic as an effort to deal with a practical set of realities that do not inhibit that sense of partnership.  Yes, as with any friendly competition, one aims to undermine the efforts of others, but plays willingly by the rules of the game.

          In any event, as what was pointed out in this blog’s review of the “student social interest,” this debate over a citizenry’s commitment to republican values (the virtue side of the debate) is not new; one can trace debates over these issues all the way back to the 1600s.[7]  Its actual points of contention have changed but at a fundamental level, it’s the same thing.

          Michael Sandel[8] supports this theme and points out that an integral element of Americans’ view of freedom through most of the early portion of the nation’s history was the ambition of owning one’s own business.  This goal usually meant owning a farm, but the essential concern was that owning a business gave a person control over a large part of one’s life.

          What was the alternative?  Wage labor jobs were considered akin to slavery or even worse in some ways.  After all, common belief held that a slave owner had a vested interest in caring for slaves, where a wage boss did not.  And one can see that currently the economy is open and encouraging the starting of new businesses.  Why?  Well, this elicits different reasons.

          This posting will end here – its main theme turns out to be a longer description than originally thought it to be.  The next posting will pick up on this notion of how inviting the current national economic conditions are to those interested in starting businesses.  It turns out that this concern over the motivation that spurs on this sort of action can be of much interest to an advocate of parochial/traditional federalism.

---

[1] This presentation begins with the posting, “A Parochial Subject Matter” (March 11, 2022).  The reader is reminded that the claims made in this posting do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or knowledge of this blogger.  Instead, the posting is a representation of what an advocate of parochial federalism might present.  This is done to present a dialectic position of that construct.

[2] William H. Schubert, Curriculum:  Perspective, Paradigm, and Possibility (New York, NY:  MacMillan Publishing Company, 1986).  The meaning of this term has been shared in previous postings.

[3] A citation that comments on the historical recurrence of this debate.  See the last posting AND Robert Dahl, A Preface to Economic Democracy (Berkeley, CA:  University of California Press, 1985).  The cited quote is excerpted from pages 162-163.

[4] “Survey:  43% of Americans Plan to Start a Business in 2022, One-Third Are First Time Entrepreneurs,” Upper Cumberland Business Journal (January 18, 2022), accessed May 5, 2022, https://www.ucbjournal.com/survey-43-of-americans-plan-to-start-a-business-in-2022-one-third-are-first-time-entrepreneurs/#:~:text=The%20study%20generated%20responses%20from,employed%20and%2019%25%20are%20unemployed.

[5] J. G. A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment (Princeton, NJ:  Princeton University Press, 1975).

[6] James Madison, “Federalist Paper Number 10,” in The Federalist Papers, authors Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay (New York, NY:  Signet, 2003).

[7] Ibid.

[8] Michael J. Sandel, Democracy’s Discontent:  America in Search of a Public Philosophy (Cambridge, MA:  The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996).