"[Under Democracy], a man finds himself environed by a government that he cannot resist; a government that forces him to pay money, render service, and forego the exercise of many of his natural rights, under peril of weighty punishments. He sees, too, that other men practice this tyranny over him by the use of the ballot. He sees further that, if he will but use the ballot himself, he has some chance of relieving himself from this tyranny of others, by subjecting them to his own. In short, he finds himself, without his consent, so situated that, if he use the ballot, he may become a master;...
Big Government, Big War: A Lesson from Feudal Europe
Ancient Rome’s high tax rates enabled maintenance of larger professional armies than were possible in the Middle Ages. Rome partially conquered the world through massive tax-funded government projects, such as investing in roads for their armies to move farther and faster and to subdue distant populations more easily. But Rome's self-destructive abuse of its people, along with its centralized governmental and heavy tax policy, contributed to its downfall. And since central powers could no longer maintain massive standing armies through heavy taxation, governance became localized. The lack of...
One Majority to Rule Them All
Decentralization, or localism, is based first on the extended family or household; when grouped with other clans, this became a locality creating laws organically for the benefit of all. On the other hand, centralization occurs when forces far from these self-governing localities use their power and influence to impose their ways on other smaller localities. In such a situation, the former free individuals lose their self-governance and the option to choose from diverse ways of life, therefore becoming tools used to benefit those in power in distant lands under an increasingly conformist...