Obama and the Fourth Republic

What is a "Republic"? The word is so maligned by Republican Party's actions that we need to set the record straight.

A Republic is a form of government where the source of all political power lies with the people and they alone can exercise the power in a number of different ways. To enable this exercise, they install "public servants" depositing them temporarily with specific defined powers. Furthermore, not to trust these "public servants", the people have another sets of public servants to arrest the actions of each other if one exceeds its brief!

It is here that lies the essential crux of a Republic. It is a grassroots driven government and with the rise of technology and society the people need different "services" from the government. The Republic is no longer a static entity but evolutionary.

But like many evolutionary systems, it is not a monotonous growth. It is long periods of equilibrium or slow evolution punctuated by rapid change.

It is to this end Michael Lind wrote an article called "Obama and the Dawn of the Fourth Republic" after Obama's election. This article is an excellent history of the American politics from the Foundation of the Republic (or rather the current constitution) till date. Please read this article.

Mr Lind has followed up with two more interesting articles (the first two of a trilogy - the last one is forthcoming).

• The Next American System: He proposes "Henry Clay's American System" redux - a twenty-first century equivalet of active govt. participation of development and growth [Indian readers may note that "active government policy" of India development was planned on the lines of what Henry Clay did for the States]. Personally all I know of him is that Clay, (followed by) Lincoln etc. set a stage of active govt to foster development that was the historical guidelines for not only India's development but also its constitution. Furthermore, Clay's ideas were replicated in many ex-colonies that began its new life as republics.
  
• An Economic Bill of Rights: This starts on topics of social insurance like Universal Health Care and paid family leave. However, soon the author transcends into an "economic Social Contract". He insists that all programs need to be "universal" and not "means based" with the adage "Programs for the poor are poor programs."

This like of thinking is interesting as to show how the Republic progresses through time. Reason wins over ideology when the conditions are so desperate that we cannot afford ideology.

Please read the articles and comment!