Comments on: Spring Training and Senatorial Appointments http://blog.oup.com/2009/03/baseball_senate/ Academic insights for the thinking world. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:04:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: RestoreFederalism http://blog.oup.com/2009/03/baseball_senate/comment-page-1/#comment-149805 RestoreFederalism Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:25:33 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=3775#comment-149805 What really changed with the 17th was not just the method of selection (legislative appointment gave way to popular democracy), but who a senator represents. The 17th did violence to the fundamental principle of "separation of powers" by abolishing the representation of one power (the sovereign state governments) and doubling the representation of another (the people). The exponential growth in the cost and scope of the national government is a direct result of this imbalance. After all, with "the people's will" so heavily represented, what is left that can provide a proper check? The Framers valued democracy, but they understood that it had practical and philosophical limits that had to be countered by some other force (the state governments). Without that, democracy crushes under its own weight, as we are seeing today. http://www.restorefederalism.org What really changed with the 17th was not just the method of selection (legislative appointment gave way to popular democracy), but who a senator represents. The 17th did violence to the fundamental principle of “separation of powers” by abolishing the representation of one power (the sovereign state governments) and doubling the representation of another (the people). The exponential growth in the cost and scope of the national government is a direct result of this imbalance. After all, with “the people’s will” so heavily represented, what is left that can provide a proper check? The Framers valued democracy, but they understood that it had practical and philosophical limits that had to be countered by some other force (the state governments). Without that, democracy crushes under its own weight, as we are seeing today.

http://www.restorefederalism.org

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