The Problem with a Government of the People

There has been a debate bout tuition going on in England. Apparently, Parliament has recently passed a low that has raised college tuition. As can be expected, college students were not happy about this decision. I heard a sound bite of one of these students giving her opinion of Parliament. She said something like, “They need to remember they work for us. Right now, they are making future voters mad.”

The idea that government officials work for the people, as expressed by this student, scares me. This student seems to think that it is the job of civil government to make her life easier. Now, in a broad sense, civil government is supposed to make life easier for people. Life is easier when criminals are caught and punished rather than being allowed to roam free and rob, steal, and kill. Business is easier when just commerce laws are enforced rather than deception and bribery ruling all transactions. However, the brunt of life, such as financial burdens incurred by higher education, are the responsibility of the individual. Responsibility implies freedom of choice, such as people being responsible enough to choose to go to college or not go to college, to go to a community college or to a four-year college. But responsibility also implies bearing the consequences of one’s actions, such as being responsible to pay for a four-year college’s tuition rate versus a community college’s tuition rate.

Unfortunately, I think many people let the idea that government works for the people cloud their understanding of responsibility. Government of the people stands in contrast to other ideas of government, such as the divine right of kings. But while a government where the citizens vote can be a check on the divine right of government officials, some citizens take their ability to vote and skew it to be a divine right of the electorate. “I vote, so officials have to listen to me, so they must do what I want them to do.” This view is simply incorrect. Rather, while civil government is subject, to a degree, to the people, the people are subject to government. Thus, a codependency exists between government officials and the electorate: officials write and pass laws which the people (including the officials) are subject to, and the people have the ability to remove officials as they see fit. Where in this loop does authority come from? The answer is: neither from the people nor from the government, but from God.

All authority comes from God. As Christ said after his resurrection: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28:18). Civil governments are only one power of many on earth, and they are subject to Christ along with every other authority. God even makes specific claims to control and to have authority over government officials (John 19:11, Rom. 13:1-6, Ps. 2:10-12). So the codependency between civil government and the electorate is so both holds the other responsible to God’s Law. If officials and the electorate stray from God’s will, however, the codependency will devolve into a ring of mutual dependency. Then, the government buys support from the people with handouts and programs, and the people feed off the government, willingly accepting and demanding support and privileges. And in the end, you get college students protesting a tuition hike.