Subnostr

Can the People delegate something they themselves don't have a right to do to the government?

This is a question I've pondered for a while, but can't come up with a satisfactory answer.

Its not legal for the American people to kill someone, even in retaliation for the commission of a crime, but they can delegate that authority to the government by way of capital punishment.

There are other examples of instances where a citizen isn't allowed to do something, but can give that ability to the government.

Its sort of a conundrum. I'd like to hear some other opinions and thoughts on this.

B 1y ago

Interesting question!

I live in a country that doesn’t have Capital Punishment so I find this curious.

A conundrum of rights.

A secondary question could follow that:

Should we be outsourcing things to Governments (and, when it comes down to the nitty gritty, government employees) that perhaps we wouldn’t do ourselves even if we had those rights?

If everyone who voted for the law went into a pool of people from whom was selected at random (like jury duty) to ‘pull the trigger’ rather than paying someone else to do the ‘dirty work’, would the majority of people continue to agree with the law? Perhaps… perhaps not.

Same question re sending people to war.

Would politicians/voters be in such a rush to send troops into battle if they themselves were required to be with them on the front line? Historically conscription generally isn’t a big vote winner.

I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t have particular laws or armed forces. I’m just observing.

We seem to outsource a lot of our rights… but also a lot of our responsibilities.

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