Guest column by Barry Klein.

– Gentle Engagement –

How free market activists can achieve a pattern of victories
at the local level while laying ground work to influence politics
at the state and federal levels. — by Barry Klein

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STEP ONE

… Recognize that money to fund an organization office with staff is critical. The following package of ideas probably cannot be done well without a budget of
$200,000 per year, per city or metro area.
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This is a strategy to reach the small number of opinion setters in each urbanized area. I call this group the “political village.” They are the civic activists and members of business groups who are watching the issues, developing opinions and sometimes trying to shape policy. It is much more affordable to reach and educate this relatively small number of people than a whole population of voting adults. I estimate 10,000 people fit this description in the Houston area where I live, and people are entering and leaving the village continuously.

1. Write a baseline “mission creep report” that explains the slow accretion of responsibilities by local governments from the first years, beginning with services such as fire departments and leading up to road building, land use regulation, playgrounds, art and entertainment programs. This is to show that government has in the past been smaller, and to suggest that it can be so again. This is a way to reframe how people perceive government’s role.

2. Continuously document the failure of government to manage properly what it has charge of, such as maintaining a humane jail and a rigorously professional police lab. Use this information to suggest that government is failing its first duty of administering a justice program because of the mission creep which distracts government from its primary functions.

3. Look for “low hanging fruit” — local policies and practices of government that are indefensible and which can be attacked while offering an alternative with which most people would agree. I call these the Issues of Opportunity. Circulate a resolution to build a coalition to push through a reform … work at it until successful.

4. Pick another issue and do the same thing again. With each victory one’s group is building an enviable reputation as being honorably motivated, scrupulously cautious in its conclusions, and politically deft.

5. After one’s group has achieved this status look for a policy flaw that may not be on anyone’s mind as an issue, such as a fixed fare schedule in the taxi industry, and build a coalition to allow competition in fares. Monitor the results so one can point to the positive outcome as reason to take similar steps with other policies that hinder operation of the free market.

6. Maintain a website to record and publicize all the above and to record all scandals and failings of government. Put them all on the web. NEVER LET THE MEMORY DIE when government officials misbehave. Politicians are frantic to “restore public confidence” by “moving past” the awkward moments. Reformers want to keep those teaching moments alive and easily accessible for recall.

7. Undermine government pretense of transparency and accountability. Use the website to post governmental deceptions that range from out-and-out lies, unfulfilled open record requests, and failures to publish or spotlight revealing data.

8. Strive to have the reform organization and website be the institutional memory of your city. Commission historical studies of various agencies, departments, issues and governmental practices to increase the prestige of the group and strengthen the public’s grasp of how much a role mission creep plays in the nature of government as special interest groups encumber governmental units with their agendas.

9. Document and publicize the planning failures of government. Virtually everything government does is justified with a plan. Demonstrate the key role that subjectivity plays in the planning process. (Randal O’Toole’s Antiplanner blog, www.ti.org/antiplanner/ should be helpful in this regard.)

10. Record the willingness of government to be cruel in a casual and thoughtless way. The owners of property who must suffer under mindless land use controls is an example, especially evident when landowners are elderly or sick. The terrible condition of many local jails is also testament to this habit of mind.

11. Use issues to teach the lessons of public choice economics and the insight of the “rational ignorance” problem in democratic decision-making.

12. Look for ways to advance the debate by posting websites and links to articles that disagree with your group’s views on an issue. This allows the public to get up to speed on policy debates and shows a reformer group’s confidence in it’s conclusions.

13. Use photos extensively in print and web postings, including images of elected officials and lower level functionaries, for purposes of praise and blame. Photographs are a cheap way to dress up an issue to make it interesting and memorable.
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In conclusion, it is my view that free market critiques should be gently offered for policy debates and can best be mediated to the public through the political village with a “microeconomic” approach focusing on local issues. For more information about this strategy and materials to further explain the concept, contact me at 713-224-4144 (or: bjklein at swbell dot net).