Senate Reform for the Global Economy: part 1

1. Civilizations and Progress :

“Is it not time to awake from the deceitful dream of a golden age, and to adopt as a practical maxim for the direction of our political conduct, that we, as well as the other inhabitants of the globe, are yet remote from the happy empire of perfect wisdom and perfect virtue?” –Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 6

‘Progress’ occurs when the maxims of the political institutions and prevailing sentiments in a given society are aligned with the gradual, often hidden causes of advancement. Alignment occurs once the collective behaviors and beliefs and relations of a society, products of the prevailing economic system, are manifested in the foundation of its bureaucratic structure. When discord between policy and ‘the forces of progress’ prevail, we encounter problems like corruption and despotism; meaning that an understanding of the causes of over-arching societal change are vital if we are to govern effectively.

Karl Marx’s dialectic history is the most insightful conception of civilization given the context of this research because it speaks in the language of economic forces, the forces most at work today. This theory will allow us to identify the relevant issues precipitating congressional inefficiencies. While studying the tendencies of capitalism, Marx developed a theory called “the materialist conception of history.” This theory contends that…

… People in a society, at any given time, have a certain level of productive ability. This depends on their own knowledge and skills, on the technology available to them, and on the bountifulness of the natural environment in which they live. These together are called … ‘productive forces’. Marx alleged that the productive forces determine the way people make their living and, at the same time, the way they relate to one another in producing and exchanging the means of life. These production and exchange relationships are what Marx called ‘the relations of production’. The productive forces plus the relations of production, which Marx referred to as ‘the economic structure of society’, shape the ‘superstructure’ of people’s religious, political, and legal systems and their modes of thought and views of life. That is, people’s material lives determine their ideas and their supporting institutions (Gurley 9).

This implies that “the way people make a living determines their ideas, but these ideas in turn affect the way they make their living” (Gurley 14). Therefore we can assume that…

…the economic structure of a society molds its superstructure of social, political, and intellectual life, including sentiments, morality, illusions, modes of thought, principles, and views of life. The superstructure contains the ideas and the systems of authority which support the class structure of that society – that is, the dominant position of the ruling class (Gurley 14).

The superstructure, therefore, “contains not only ideas but also institutions and activities that support the class structure of society- the state, legal institutions, etc…” (Gurley 15). Moreover, Marx asserted, “such development is not imposed on us from the ‘outside’ nor do we simply adapt in passive ways to social change. We, in fact, initiate those changes and, by so doing, make ourselves worthy of the new conditions” (Gurley 12). This implies that that the structure of a state (its governance) cannot change until the economic structure of society necessitates this structural change.

It is, therefore, the coordination of bureaucratic structure with the economic structures of the time that makes any society prosperous and thusly this coordination should be our and every state’s goal.

-Wealthy Americans