A Lesson in Government Structure Part I

In our day, we hear a lot of talk about the 'Right' and the 'Left'. Just where do these terms come from and what do they mean? They are actually terms relating to the various seating of the parliaments of Europe. The Communists on the Left, the Fascists on the Right, with the other parties in between. Of course Communism and Fascism are kind of the same side of different coins - they both mean a police state.

Our American Founders decided to measure the political spectrum in terms of power, not party, with Tyranny on the Left and Anarchy on the Right. Tyranny meaning too much government control and political oppression. Anarchy meaning no government, law, or systematic control or power. The Founders discovered the middle of the extremes, or the People's Law, where government is kept under the control of the people, and only enough government to maintain security, justice, and order, but not enough power to abuse the people.

The Tyrannical Monarchy, or Ruler's Law, in which our Founders won victory over had these basic characteristics:

Ruler's Law

1. Authority under Ruler's Law is nearly always established by force, violence, and conquest.
2. Therefore, all sovereign power is considered to be in the conqueror or his descendants.
3. The people are not equal, but are divided into classes and are all looked upon as "subjects" of the king.
4. The entire country is considered to be the property of the ruler. He speaks of it as his "realm."
5. The thrust of governmental power is from the top down, not from the people upward.
6. The people have no unalienable rights. The "king giveth and the king taketh away."
7. Government is by the whims of men, not by the fixed rule of law which the people need in order to govern their affairs with confidence.
8. The ruler issues edicts which are called "the law." He then interprets the law and enforces it, thus maintaining tyrannical control over the people.
9. Under Ruler's Law, problems are always solved by issuing more edicts or laws, setting up more bureaus, harassing the people with more regulators, and charging the people for these "services" by continually adding to their burden of taxes.
10. Freedom is never looked upon as a viable solution to anything.
11. The long history of Ruler's Law is one of blood and terror, both anciently and in modern times. Under it the people are stratified into an aristocracy of the ruler's retinue while the lot of the common people is one perpetual poverty, excessive taxation, stringent regulations, and a continuous existence of misery.*

By contrast, the People's Law (originally practiced by the Anglo-Saxons) has these characteristics:

People's Law

1. They considered themselves a commonwealth of freemen.
2. All decisions and the selection of leaders had to be with the consent of the people, preferably by full consensus, not just a majority.
3. The laws by which they were governed were considered natural laws given by divine dispensation, and were so well known by people they did not have to be written down.
4. Power was dispersed among the people and never allowed to concentrate in any one person or group. Even in time of war, the authority granted to the leaders was temporary and the power of the people to remove them was direct and simple.
5. Primary responsibility for resolving problems rested first of all with the individual, then the family, then the tribe or community, then the region, and finally, the nation.
6. The were organized into small, manageable groups where every adult had a voice and a vote. They divided the people into units of ten families who elected a leader; then fifty families who elected a leader; then a hundred families who elected a leader; and then a thousand families who elected a leader.
7. They believed the rights of the individual were considered unalienable and could not be violated without risking the wrath of divine justice as well as civil retribution by the people's judges.
8. The system of justice was structured on the basis of severe punishment unless there was complete reparation to the person who had been wronged. There were only four "crimes" or offenses against the whole people. These were treason, by betraying their own people; cowardice, by refusing to fight or failing to fight courageously; desertion; and homosexuality. These were considered capital offenses. All other offenses required reparation to the person who had been wronged.
9. The always attempted to solve problems on the level where the problem originated. If this was impossible they went no higher than was absolutely necessary to get a remedy. Usually only the most complex problems involving the welfare of the whole people, or a large segment of the people, ever went to the leaders for solution.*

Ruler's Law = All Power in the Ruler
People's Law = All Power in the People

Look forward to A Lesson in Government Structure Part II in the coming days.

* Lists  and images taken from The 5,000 Year Leap by Cleon Skousen