Johan Frederik Rudolph van Hooff Quotes
… far from making one single Republic, this land has reverted to a state of many little republics of towns and localities.
Johan Frederik Rudolph van Hooff, 1755–1816, Dutch Patriot & Politician, Member of the Batavian Revolutionary Committee, Member of the National Assembly, Mayor of Eindhoven, ~1797
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
After the Dutch Revolution there was a small, but passionate minority who did not want a strong national government. They wanted local republics. See {639847} for more on this point.
This quotation is one of the early arguments for local control in a republican government. Note the importance of the nobility and chief gentry. Although a republican, Milton was no democrat.
There was an active secession movement by the Western States. New Orleans was then controlled by the Spanish who would not allow U.S. goods access to export from New Orleans. Some of the wealthier Western citizens thought that they would fare better as a vassal state of Spain rather than part of the newly formed United States. Jefferson, did not overreact and the movement for secession faded.
Many wonder why Bolivar did not attempt to unify much of South America into a single federated state once they had thrown off the yoke of Spanish colonialism. This was his reason.
One of the reasons that foreign superpowers have failed in their efforts in Afghanistan is that they tried to install and work through a central, national government. See {634657} and {634659}.
Ironically, many Republican leaders give lip service to decentralized government but they fight hard for centralized national government making. Many want Congress to make laws governing abortion and other family planning techniques. Some want the state to decide, but almost no Republicans want to leave these personal decisions to the local government much less the family and women involved. In business regulation as well, republican fight tooth and nail to have Federal legislation prempt state and local government about tort liability for defective products, and they always prefer that the Federal SEC make all the rules and regulations about selling stocks and bonds and do not want state or local government to “interfere”. Likewise, they have emasculated the state governments when it comes to authority over the state militias where virtually all the controls and promotions are decided by Congress and the Department of Defense and not by Governors or local politicians. Ther are many other examples. In most of the solid Republican Southern States, the local school boards cannot even select the textbooks that schools will use and the Republicans centralize this with the State government and state legislatures which they control. Democrats also are generally opposed to decentralization except for large cities having control along with the Federal government but otherwise they too do not want decentralization. For national political parties, what is the point of winning national elections of the big decisions are made locally?
There was huge pressure on the central government to decentralize as they held all the power in Indonesian society. However, if they devolved power to the Provinces (States), many of them could be large enough and independent enough to secede and become an independent country as East Timor had done. So the Indonesian power structure bypassed the Provincial governments and devolved power directly to the local governments, none of which was independent enough to go it alone. The desired objective was met—no more secessions. However, there was no one to worry about regional and national issues and problems as the politicians who had power were all local. The country was becoming non-functional in many ways.
He persuaded many other rulers to join the Indian Union when India became Independent.
- Born: August 26, 1755
- Died: June 13, 1816
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