Originally Posted by spence
And decentralization can lead to localized corruption as well. See it all the time in communities.
Government, by definition, is a centralization of power.
Neither decentralization nor its opposite lead to corruption. That's why you "see it all the time in communities." We already have a progressively over-centralized federal system and that does not diminish corruption at local levels. Corruption is inherent in the human condition.
The individual is a central unit of self-government. Corruption and abuse of power at that level of government has the least impact on the entire nation. And the individual has, inherently, total control of his/her morality.
Families are centralized mini-governments. Corruption in a family unit does not affect the entire nation. And the family has near total control of its morality.
Local government is centralized, more or less depending on its structure of checks and balances. The corruption at that level does not affect the entire nation. And the local citizens have more influence in stopping or prosecuting corruption in their community than they have over corruption in the national government. And the numerous localities can show different ways to govern, regulate, and prevent malfeasance or allow growth and good citizenship which can be copied or rejected by other localities or by higher levels of government. And it is easier to change things in response to public demand at the local level. Power is more closely held by the people at the local level than at the national level.
The national government is centralized (it is also referred to as the Central Government), but it is limited in power by a constitutional structure, and its power is further disbursed by its system of checks and balances.
Any corruption or abuse of power at the federal level affects the entire nation. And the possibility of centralized conglomerates of commerce, including banks, having commercial power over the whole country is far more possible, easier, when they become quasi governmental in tandem with federal regulation which favors them. The people have very limited to no control over national power.
The type of centralization of power that is the most to be feared, by those who believe in limited government, is the steady centralization of all government into the hands of the national government--the incorporation of all the powers and rights, from the individual, the family, the local and state, into the power and right of the Central Government.
Corruption, abuse of power, fascism, have their greatest opportunities to thrive under that unitary consolidation of government. That unitary power has limited to no opportunity to observe and compare various policies in action since it is the sole actor. It usually will just repeat its errors with even more force and funding into a downward spiral of economic collapse. And the entire nation will be under its thumb.
Pretty much exactly the opposite. The bubble was mainly caused by a lack of regulatory control that allowed for cheap and reckless loans, further exacerbated by additional lack of regulation that encouraged corrupt banking practices to obfuscate the risk.
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