"The US government is not broken; it works the way it is supposed to work!" [Because it is broken] 

“We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” Thomas Jefferson

Where do we start to fix a dysfunctional government in United States?  How do we do it?  This article briefly reviews the historical events of democracy and governing before 1776, then provides documentation of how such events probably influenced two early presidents to project ways of restoring the eroding democracy and their broken governments. Finally, as an example that it can be done, how less than 100 people formed a self- managed community with no government or politicians!

There are a lot of self-appointed experts with biased opinions on how to fix a broken country.  But their suggestions are a faint glow in the night, eventuating in not much change!  Dees: Large scale change 2014  Clement: Fix economy 2014  Howard: fix legal system 2010  Klein: third party solution 2014  Kotter: Steps for large scale change 2010    However, two politicians from the past [ early 1800's ] perceived future political-economic irregularities in the governing process.  Both John Adams [ 2nd president of United States ] and Thomas Jefferson [ 3rd president of United States ], as framers of the constitution and as presidents, struggled with ways to fix the early power struggles and political manipulations of the governing system during their presidencies.  They proposed clear visions for preventing and changing a sick government and country. 

Key concepts: 1. vote for the individual and not the political party. 2. form units or wards small enough so each person could be heard, seen and known. 3. in Jefferson's opinion, nothing that could easily be done by individuals at the local level ought to be accomplished at the local level and NOT at the federal government.   "Small and direct representation is beautiful!"

Both plans were hatched during the conditions of the early 1800's.  Jefferson's plan, which has been referred to as Jefferson’s Hundreds, would need to be adjusted and updated to today's technological advancements, and differences in family size. These units or groups could be formed in any number of ways, in locations urban or rural. After all, counting to one hundred is hardly difficult but counting to 1000 and more obscures the individual.

Implementing both of these proposals would be one of the greatest challenges of our time.  Most thinking on fixing the broken government today is politically-economically  oriented, empty and static! But in spite of empty 'do nothing' thinking by politicians, academic institutions and businesses, these are very exiting ideas to fix the broken government in Washington.  This article briefly accounts for Jefferson's impact thinking on the world, captures the innovative thinking of many persons and recognizes ways to fix the USA without a civil military war!

Unfortunately, although it is acknowledged that the country and democracy are broken, identifying the cause of the problem(s) has been ignored and misunderstood. 

The current thinking is to blame 'politics' for many components of a broken system.  For example:

"The real problem with American politics is the growing tendency among politicians to pursue victory above all else—to treat politics as war—which runs counter to basic democratic values and may be crippling Washington’s ability to reach solutions that capture the smartest thinking of both camps. Revitalizing the nation’s culture of democracy is essential. And because the economic stakes are so high, business leaders must play an important role in the process." Moss: Fixing USA politics 2012

Another point of view, also blaming politics for USA problems is: "The most serious challenges in the country — entitlement spending, climate change, immigration, foreign policy conflagrations in the Middle East and elsewhere — are getting steadily worse." Wheelan: Fixing US politics 2014

And such approaches get us "stuck in the mud!"  Washington gets paralyzed!

Most readers may be more anxious to view the "Fix" first and thereafter view the evidence that USA is a broken country.  This article unfolds with the 'fix America' ideas of Howard and Rosenburg's overview of Jefferson's fix.

"So, what's needed is a basic shift in philosophy.  [ Author Sorochan insertion: We need to adapt to new changes and thinking out of the existing box.  The illustration on the right reminds us of how we changed in thinking as communication technology advanced from the telephone lines to today's internet. Similarly, we can pull the plug on a lot of today's government politics if we shift our philosophy or way of thinking.] For example: "We've been taught that authority is the enemy of freedom. It's not true. Authority, in fact, is essential to freedom. Law is a human institution; responsibility is a human institution. If teachers don't have authority to run the classroom, to maintain order, everybody's learning suffers. If the judge doesn't have the authority to toss out unreasonable claims, then all of us go through the day looking over our shoulders. If the environmental agency can't decide that the power lines are good for the environment, then there's no way to bring the power from the wind farms to the city. A free society requires red lights and green lights, otherwise it soon descends into gridlock. That's what's happened to America. Look around."  Howard: fix legal system 2010

Jefferson's proposal: Several letters by Jefferson summarize his way of fixing a government that was in its infancy but already sputtering and dysfunctional.  [ Although somewhat lengthy, author Sorochan perceived it important that you, the reader, have the details of Jefferson's ideas .... and judge for yourself the merits of Jefferson's ideas.]

"This is a letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Tyler, dated May 26, 1810: I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength. 1. That of general education to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each will be within reach of a central school in it. … Every hundred, besides a school, should have a justice of the peace, a constable, and a captain of its militia. These officers, or some others within the hundred, should be a corporation to manage all its concerns, to take care of its roads, its poor, and its police by patrols, etc.… Every hundred should elect one or two jurors to serve where requisite, and all other elections should be made in the hundreds separately, and the votes of all the hundreds be brought together. … These little republics would be the main strength of the great one. We owe to them the vigor given to our revolution in its commencement … General orders are given out from a center to the Foreman of every hundred … Could I once see this I should consider it as the dawn of the salvation of the republic. … " Rosenburg: Jefferson restoring republic 2014  Hoyt: Flaw in Jefferson's wards 2014

"Jefferson repeats essentially the same plan to Samuel Kercheval in 1816: The article, nearest my heart, is the division of counties into wards. These will be pure and elementary republics, the sum of all which, taken together, composes the State, and will make a true democracy as to the business of the wards, which is that of nearest and daily concern. The division into wards … enables them by that organization to crush, regularly and peaceably, the usurpations of their unfaithful agents, and rescues them from the dreadful necessity of doing it insurrectionally. In this way we shall be as republican as a large society can be, and secure the continuance of purity in our government, through salutary, peaceable, and regular control by the people. Jefferson’s plan, in simple terms, is this: 1. Divide the entire country into 100-person units with full self-governing powers. 2. These units can then delegate some of their powers to larger governmental bodies, or not. 3. The tiny size of these units would ensure that every person in the country knew his or her local representative… as in, “can knock on their door and complain to their face.” Rosenburg: Jefferson restoring republic 2014 

Jefferson's 100 unit size of 1820's needs to be adjusted to today's 1000 [or smaller]: The hundreds is what we would call a standard 1000-person (200 family) voting district/neighborhood government today. Remember, in Jefferson's time families were larger, so a hundred families in the ward in 1800 would be equal to 1000 adults today.  Population shifts from the farm to the city complicate Jefferson's idea of small representative units.   Adopting the 100-unit size today would need to be scaled to account for differences between rural and urban populations and technological changes.

It would be appropriate to take a 'time-out' from Adams and Jefferson plans to fix the problems of United States.  To fully appreciate their fixer plans, we need to have a very brief appreciation of how democracy, justice and government evolved in the world.  America did not invent democracy! We begin with the ideas of ancient Greece.

Greek early decentralization of government was Pre-Athenian, polis-based Greece featured a pattern of small, equally sized and therefore equally influential land parcels (read “sections”) which were owned (and defended) by the same yeoman farmers who tended the figs, leeks, olives, and grapes growing on them, and when new land was appropriated by polis-era Greeks (claimed from wilderness-status) it tended to be divided up into small, eleven-acre rectangles in such a way as to form a grid, thereby reinforcing egalitarianism to the same degree that Jefferson’s grid eventually did. Hoyt: Flaw in Jefferson's wards 2014

Athenian democracy took the form of a direct democracy, and it had two distinguishing features: the random selection of ordinary citizens to fill the few existing government administrative and judicial offices, and a legislative assembly consisting of all Athenian citizens.  All eligible citizens were allowed to speak and vote in the assembly, which set the laws of the city state. However, Athenian citizenship excluded women, slaves, foreigners (μέτοικοι métoikoi), non-landowners, and males under 20 years old. Wiki: Democracy

Range voting appeared in Sparta as early as 700 BC. The Apella was an assembly of the people, held once a month, in which every male citizen of age 30 could participate. In the Apella, Spartans elected leaders and cast votes by range voting and shouting. Aristotle called this "childish," as compared with the stone voting ballots used by the Athenians. Sparta adopted it because of its simplicity, and to prevent any bias voting, buying, or cheating that was predominant in the early democratic elections. Wiki: Democracy

In ancient times the idea of a democracy meant that the community would be run by meetings and attended by every citizen. After examining the facts and discussing what needed to be done, the people would make the laws, decide every act of government policy and judge every dispute that arose in the community.

Although there is debate over how big a unit or ward should be today in acreage and population, there is historical and anthropological support for Jefferson's small size representative units: 

England and the Magna Carta:  The history of local government in England is one of gradual change and evolution since the Middle Age.  Another form of government, known as feudalism developed before 1776. Feudalism stressed that all people had certain rights and developed a system of courts to defend these rights.

In medieval England, in 1215, King John had total control and his subjects had no freedom or say whatsoever.  King John signed the Charter of Freedoms [Magna Carta], and gave rise to democracy [ picture on right ]. The Magna Carta limited the power of the king over church and nobility. It also established the Council of Nobles and the beginning of parliament. It took some of the king's power away and gave some rights and freedom to the people.

The Magna Carta is a historical document that means 'Great Charter' (great paper) in Latin. It was written by the barons of England who were unhappy that the king was abusing his power and increasing taxes.

The Magna Carta contained 63 clauses promising all freemen access to the courts and a fair trial, eliminating unfair fines and punishments and giving power to the Catholic Church in England instead of the king.

The Magna Carta was an important milestone in British Law and would become the basis for many international constitutions in the future, including the United States.  

Christianity and Church of England: Christianity and the Church of England [ picture on right ] gained popularity during feudalism by providing services that the King did not or would not.  Rural areas were organized into smaller units called parishes.   Although the parishes were in no sense governmental organizations, laws were passed requiring parishes to carry out certain responsibilities. From 1555, parishes were responsible for the upkeep of nearby roads. From 1605 parishes were responsible for administering the Poor Law, and were required to collect money for their own poor. The parishes were run by parish councils that worked from churches that were subservient to higher authority.  Hoyt: Flaw in Jefferson's wards 2014  The Church of England gained power from the crown during feudalism; this power eventually resulted in political fighting between the royal crown, the British Commons and the church. Christianity taught that all men were created equal. An important point to be made here is that small 'parish' units may have enforced Jefferson's idea of small community units and democracy. Wiki: History of English government

Meanwhile on the North American continent, native Indian tribes banded together into tribal units and evolved their own codes of social justice and freedom.

Native Indian tribe size:  Pre-colonial native tribes in North and South America evolved as small manageable units.

Early colonial reports state that the population size of North American Indian villages was usually small.  This is illustrated by the  wigwam village and Manhattan-Island tribe camp above.  Tribes were known to historically divide into smaller chieftain units so as to be more manageable and efficient to govern.  A normal Cherokee town had about 30 - 60 houses and a large meeting building. Jefferson may have evolved his small units idea from observing such villages and how Indian tribes functioned. Another example of small village size are those found in the Amazon River rain forest area; tribe size is usually small due to the size of available dry land area. 

Jefferson's 100 units in world: It should be obvious by now that the ideas of Adams and Jefferson were not new. Their ideas sprouted from the influence of ancient civilizations like the Greeks, the English system of government and even the lifestyles of native American Indians.  It should be noted that today we already have traces of some ideas of Adam and Jefferson already in place in different parts of United States and the world.  But these may not be recognized as being related to these fathers of the constitution and these may need tweaking to make them work. 

Brazil: About 1800, Brazil began succeeding from Portugal and evolving its own constitution. Numerous leaders, among them, Jose Joaquim de Maia, had visited Thomas Jefferson in France, asking for American help in doing so. In that sense, the recurrent American idea that taxation without representation is tyranny had its moment in Brazil.  In 1822, Brazil achieved its political freedom from Portugal and the first draft of the constitution was implemented in 1824.  Jefferson's sharing of ideas, not advice, had given birth to Brazil!

Early Land Policy in United States:  After the Constitution, Jefferson pushed his anti-urban policy in the Land Ordinance of 1785. This is the classic land policy that divided land in what is now the Midwest into six square mile townships, divided into 640 acre sections. Jefferson and his friends imagined that each section would become used for farming, except for one section that would be reserved for public education.  Today, the local recorder’s office in each state records the location of a certain tract; all you need to know are its section, range, and township numbers, relative to the ruling meridian and baseline axes in that geographical region. Hoyt: Flaw in Jefferson's wards 2014

Although there is debate over how big a unit or ward should be today in acreage and population, there is anthropological support for Jefferson's small size units: 

Anthropological support for Jefferson's small people units.  British anthropologist Robin Dunbar's research in 1990 found a correlation between primate brain size and average social group size.  Dunbar suggested that there is cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person.  By using the average human brain size and extrapolating from the results of primates, he proposed that humans can only comfortably maintain 150 stable relationships.  Proponents assert that numbers larger than this generally require more restrictive rules, laws, and enforced norms to maintain a stable, cohesive group. It has been proposed to lie between 100 and 250, with a commonly used value of 150. Wiki: Dunbar's numbers 

The main features of microfinance are: Wiki: Microfinance

1. Loan given without security
2. Loans to those people who live below the poverty line
3. Members of SHGs may benefit from micro finance
4. Maximum limit of loan under micro finance ₨25,000/-
5. Terms and conditions offered to poor people are decided by NGOs
6. Microfinance is different from Microcredit- under the later, small loans are given to the borrower but under microfinance alongside many other financial services including savings accounts and insurance. Therefore microfinance has a wider concept than microcredit.

Micro-credit is similar to microfinancing. It was developed as an innovative response to the lack of capital for poor families; leveraging a combination of social credit [ people knowing people in the community ] and micro enterprise initiatives [ small enterprises that could generate a livelihood ]. And this form of credit is most relevant for low-income individuals who typically do not have access to banking services. The general belief was that low-income individuals are capable of overcoming poverty if given access to this type of credit. 

There are many variations of how microfinance works.  One such example is that a group of women in a village banding together for support. They save money as a credit fund that is made available to them to start a mini home business. They know each other. The group monitors on a daily basis how the borrower manages her business.  Another woman may not be able to get a loan until a previous borrower has repaid her loan.

Justice Brandois on big government and corporations: Former Chief Justice Brandeis' views of American politics were very similar to that of Jefferson.  Brandeis has been the most important American critic of bigness, in business and government; and his views about the need for citizens to achieve their potential in small-scale communities reflected his own upbringing and background. During the past hundred years, The New Republic magazine has continued to champion the principles that made Brandeis the greatest constitutional philosopher of the twentieth century: opposition to the curse of bigness, in corporations and government; devotion to judicial restraint in cases involving economic regulations; judicial vigilance in cases involving free speech and civil liberties; and an enthusiasm for Zionism. Brandeis was a lawyer of the people! Urofsky: Brandeois copies Jefferson

Libertarian party format:   Jefferson's modernization of hundreds and town-hall governance has had a big impact on a political system form of what Libertarians call mini-anarchism or traditional anarchism.  www.isil.org had a presentation on the subject to world pro-libs several years ago at the world brainstorming event. For more on the world Libertarian movement see http://www.libertarianinternat... the Libertarian International Organization. The Libertarian International above announced it has at least one libertarian-oriented family in about every such district on Earth. So the Jeffersonian movement is underway.

Examples in USA today: 

High school government:  Many high school student governments come very close in resembling Jefferson's concept of a class representative elected to the student council.  The class size is about 30 to 40 students, smaller than Jefferson's 100 unit size but nevertheless a direct voter representation.  Then there are city councils that are made up of district units much larger than the 100 unit.  Another example is the makeup of school boards.  These examples are a semblance of the 100 unit with the size variation.  So if one were to implement Jefferson's ideas .... these examples may be an obvious place to start. Oh .... lets not overlook Jefferson's plea to have 'uncensored' history taught in all schools!  For democracy to work, we need an informed and uncensored public.

 Newport City Fire Department, Virginia:  decentralizing its fire department [372 fire fighters] response to a 78 square mile community of 185,000 citizens.  

Decentralized energy generation [DEG] is a promising solution for supplying the increasing energy demand, especially on islands [Croatian Islands], remote regions and small communities. Installation of DEG near the place of energy consumption represents a platform for achieving the efficient energy use and thus contributing to the sustainable energy development.   

Florida development of modern condo rules:  The ownership of building units is an indirect  spin-off of Jefferson's 100 units which divide land horizontally.  However, there was debate in Europe prior to 1800 over who owned rooms in a multi-storied building situated vertically above land.  It was an issue of ownership of space below and above the surface of the land.  The model for American statutes on condominium law came not from Europe, but from Puerto Rico. A major housing shortage, along with the high cost of real estate and a shortage of land in Puerto Rico, led to the approval of the condominium form of homeownership in 1951. A more detailed version of the act, approved in 1958, was the Horizontal Property Act provides a statutory method of subdividing the space occupied by a building into horizontal strata or layers. The Horizontal Property Act of Puerto Rico gave impetus to the condominium [units] movement in America and became the model for much of the legislation approved in the various states. Recognition of the condominium form of property ownership became part of the 1961 National Housing Act. 

New England town hall meetings: Jefferson's modernization of small size and town-hall governance is popular in the new England states.  Town hall meetings bring local people immediate access to discuss their local community problems and ways of fixing their problems.  People participate directly in local government.

US Government reform: A more refreshing approach would be to focus on the system of democracy [ no consensus on  definition ] and government.  How about fixing the issue of representation, unit size, gerrymandering, redefining a corporation, the justice-legal system, the process of how we vote, fix the national debt and even scrutinizing how the constitution may be amended! 

Jury: Jefferson's concept of a jury and how it would work was very different from the jury of today! A jury is a tribune of the people [or country].  Being randomly selected, the jurors are to be independent of the government and thus bear no vested interest in the same. Further, they are representative of the full range of views, morality and common sense that exist among the people. Today, it is assumed that a jury would be chosen from the people and not be influenced by the local police or government; but this assumption is often flawed. 

Voting:  The process of voting was perceived by Adams in his day as flawed. Today, a voter falls through the cracks and is unrecognized by today's politicians.  Voting is assumed to give the voter representation of his choice of rights that would transcend to the next level of representative government.  But such a process is debated and perceived as being broken by Jefferson and others.   Here are two such examples:

"When a person is empowered to control his own destiny at the local level, “he feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs not merely at an election, one day in the year, but every day.” Such a person will defend his liberty; “he will let the heart be torn out of his body, sooner than his power be wrested from him by a Caesar or a Bonaparte.”  Smith: Jefferson on education 2012

By 1879  Hubert Spencer was convinced that voting was not a very good way to preserve our rights but rather a means to put ourselves “in bondage” to the state:

Evidence that USA is broken: The defenders of 'politics as usual' may be skeptical of the reform ideas or that the American democracy needs to be fixed.  However, there are plenty of informed and astute observers who think otherwise.  The list includes:

• David Stockman, former Congressman and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan.
• Reclaim democracy
• Fareed Zakaria is Editor of Newsweek International
• Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel Laureate in Economics and Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia University. He was chief economist at the World Bank and a senior economic adviser to President Clinton.
• Ralph Nader: Bold ideas to fix America
• Fixing economic meltdown
• Decline in US dollars
• Congressman Ron Paul
• Congressional Report 2011
• Articles on a flawed democracy
• Cost effective medical care system solution for United States
• Nutrition information often not scientifically data based
• FDA corruption letter
• Pharmaceutical Monopoly versus Free Market
• Truth about drug companies by Marcia Angell MD and editor in chief of NEJM, 1999
• Obesity and food addiction
• Sugar addiction & health

This is an incomplete list but it makes the point that there are a lot of informed persons pointing out that the United States government and political-economic-social system is broken.  Many readers will be skeptical that attempts to fix a broken government can work!

So .... is there any evidence that bringing about large scale change in a government or country can work?  Yes there is!   Despite this growing interest, relatively little evidence-based guidance exists about how to bring about large-scale change.

The second half of the twentieth century witnessed the end of European colonial empires and the rise to independence of many new countries in Africa and Asia, as well as the establishment of major international organizations, including the United Nations, the World Court, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. The era has also been marked by the rise to global power of the United States in the aftermath of World War II. Finally, the period largely coincided with the Cold War (1947-1989) and its aftermath. It is also possible, however, to perceive emerging new constellations of political and economic power. The challenge of global population increase has intensified struggles over scarce resources (especially water and energy). The world economy, which enjoyed a half century of remarkable growth, has begun to display previously undetected vulnerabilities. By 2000, assertive new political actors, especially the European Union, China, and India, were beginning to provoke global power shifts. At the same time, the unraveling of states in tropical Africa and elsewhere has suggested that central governments can show themselves to be incapable of managing repeated political and economic crises.

Here is an incomplete list of events that resulted in political-economic change in the world:

China's one child law was introduced in1979 to alleviate social, economic and environmental problems in China.  It was amended in 2007.

South Africa Apartheid of racial segregation was developed after World War II and changed in 1994.

Bolivia's fight to control its natural gas-oil and water resources formerly controlled by foreign companies.

USSR break up Following the end of the Cold War in 1989, the Soviet Union broke up into more than a dozen new states in 1991.

Ghandi's non-violent protests against British rule played a crucial role in India achieving independence in 1947 from Great Britain.  

Turkey's independence in 1921 .

Russia's revolution of 1917 with communists overthrowing the Imperial government of the Czar.

China's communists overthrew ruling Kuomintang [KMT] in 1949.

French revolution 1789 until 1799  profoundly altered the course of modern history, marking the global decline of absolute monarchies and organized religions and replacing them with radical and liberal ideas, democracies and republics.

The above list of world political-economic changes give hope that governments and their political-economic shortcomings can be changed for the better.  Would the ideas of Adams and Jefferson work?  Jefferson’s Hundreds would be a reasonable and effective way to return to America’s first freedoms.  And there is absolutely no reason why these ideas wouldn’t work.  Such a fix would probably take 10 to 20 years to implement.  And yes, we can expect opposition from corporations, big business and politicians!

Conclusion:  Did you know about the ideas of the Isle of Eigg, Adams and Jefferson to restore our government and democracy? The author has presented Adams 's and Jefferson's ideas as food for thought.  It is the ideas that motivate us into action.  You need to take the next step and help restore democracy in the USA.  Ideas count!

Your feedback is most appreciated: E-mail to:  Author Walter Sorochan

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