“You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.” Deuteronomy 16.18

Over the past 200 years government in America has become increasingly centralized, as Americans have come to believe that a strong central government is the best way to ensure maximum material prosperity for all.

And with this, many of the worst fears of the Anti-Federalist writers have begun to come to pass.

The result is that federal and state governments wield vastly more power than local officials. And, while wealth has increased in America, justice has suffered considerably, and a mindset of “entitlement” has settled on increasing numbers of the nation’s people.

Meanwhile, how many Americans even bother to pay attention to or participate in local politics? For whom did you vote in the last county or city council elections?

Just government begins in just self-government, learned from God’s Law, taught in Christian homes and churches, practiced at the local level, and encoded, when possible, in the public policies of the land. There is a need, of course, for national governments. But these should at all times keep in mind the primacy of local governments to oversee the outworking of the divine economy for the people in their care.

T. M. Moore

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