Political Campaigns

Politics is perhaps the most complex form of human interaction. In the United States of America, tens of millions of people participate in politics every day. It is crucial for citizens of the United States to understand how highly complex, binding decisions are made in the context of an overwhelming diversity of opinions and perspectives and the role that individual citizens play in that process. Becoming familiar with and applying the liberty-versus-order framework can help you do so.

To give you a taste of the usefulness of looking at American government and politics through the lenses of liberty and order, consider for a moment the two most important documents in American history: the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. Without each of these documents, the United States of America would not exist as we know it. Given the preceding discussion, however, it might not be surprising that there are tensions between liberty and order even between these two founding charters of our nation.

Read the following passage from the Declaration of Independence and decide whether it emphasizes liberty or order:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Now read the Preamble of the Constitution. Which does it emphasize?

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Throughout this text, I will draw attention to the changing balance between liberty and order at various times and in different circumstances in America’s political history.