{"id":29329,"date":"2022-03-03T10:47:18","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T10:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=29329"},"modified":"2022-03-03T10:47:18","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T10:47:18","slug":"neal-milner-resist-simplistic-solutions-to-government-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/03\/neal-milner-resist-simplistic-solutions-to-government-corruption\/","title":{"rendered":"Neal Milner: Resist Simplistic Solutions To Government Corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ad_1]<\/p>\n

\n

\"Opinion

Term limits don\u2019t solve problems that people want them to solve, and in many ways make things worse. That is what extensive research shows.<\/p>\n

The corruption crusade is not wrong on its face. Of course, we should reduce corruption. But the crusade we see taking place is wrong because it is more like a moral panic than a rational response.<\/p>\n

Extreme job security: In redistricting years, legislators like to protect their own by trying their darnedest to arrange the legislative districts so that two incumbent legislators don\u2019t have to run against one another, God forbid.<\/p>\n

Legislators, you are not a Youngstown steel factory\u2019s shop floor struggling to keep the company from moving to Mexico.<\/p>\n

You are not supposed to have job security.<\/p>\n

Extreme job insecurity: That job-saving behavior puts another arrow in the quiver of justifications for throwing the rascals out.<\/p>\n

\u201cTerm-limit \u2019em!\u201d<\/p>\n

But what often comes out of the quiver isn\u2019t an arrow but a blunt instrument.<\/p>\n

No surprise that many who want to throw the rascals out see term limits as a solution because term limits are the ultimate job insecurity.<\/p>\n

If an elected official faces term limits, after a certain number of terms she goes bye-bye. Period. Out comes the bad air, in comes the good.<\/p>\n

Competence, though, is good air, which is a key part of reasons why term limits don\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

Now, if you want term limits just because you are sick and tired of the same old rascals and want those rascals out, fine. \u201cThrow \u2018em all out. Put \u2018em on the ship of fools.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a legitimate response. It\u2019s just not a rational one. By any other criteria, term limits do much damage.<\/p>\n

Studies show that if you drain the swamp, you don\u2019t change the culture. You just create another swamp, this one possibly even murkier and smellier.<\/p>\n

The sort of candidates who run for office in term-limited legislatures does not change. No emergence of citizen legislators. No pack of Mr. Smiths going to Washington to fight corruption.<\/p>\n

To understand term limits\u2019 limits, go back to the idea that all those rascals should be put on a ship of fools. The ship of fools comes from a story that Plato told in The Republic to show the value of expertise.<\/p>\n

The captain of that ship was the expert. The passengers knew nothing about seacraft. Still, they thought they could be captain. Good luck with that. Disaster.<\/p>\n

Term limits bring in people Plato would consider fools. Let\u2019s be more generous, less elitist, and more democratic and call them not fools but rookies.<\/p>\n

Rookies don\u2019t know much, as in \u201crookie mistakes.\u201d So, they need mentors, people who have been around for a long time. Guess who?<\/p>\n

Whatever you think about legislators, legislating is a hard job that takes a good deal of time to master. Try figuring out the state budget, not just what the numbers are but where the bodies are buried. And over time, a legislator develops both subject matter knowledge and knowledge about who knows what.<\/p>\n

So, when you evict the experts, you create a vacuum of knowledge. And, as it turns out, this vacuum is likely filled with experienced mentors like lobbyists and special interest groups.<\/p>\n

Which is a key reason why, as the research shows, term limits do not reduce inside influence or corruption and in fact may increase it.<\/p>\n

The Crusade Against Corruption: Another Blunt Instrument<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The fight against corruption has become a crusade based on moral panic.<\/p>\n

Moral panic exists when there is a widespread sense that an evil force is threatening the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvil,\u201d \u201ccrusade\u201d \u2014 that sounds like, well, The Crusades, which is not a model I would choose for bringing about social change.<\/p>\n

Like other panics, moral panics make people misperceive, to see things that really aren\u2019t there, and to miss important things that are.<\/p>\n

The response to our two legislators recently getting caught with their hands in the till, or in one case, in the seat cushion, has been just crazy and over the top.<\/p>\n

So much hand wringing. So much talk about a \u201cculture of corruption,\u201d which has an \u201cevil all around us\u201d feel.<\/p>\n

Politicians giving back campaign contributions, calls for special investigation units, ethics workshops, campaign spending and fundraising regulations. Special units to root out corrupters.<\/p>\n

\"Former