In
The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America,
Philip K. Howard puts forth his belief that
America has become far too reliant on
law over human judgment, on
bureaucracy and "
process" over
individual initiative and
responsibility. With countless examples, he demonstrates the disastrous effects of this reliance:
Government regulatory agencies for
environmental protection and
workers’ safety have attempted to perfectly lay out the functioning of a clean, safe factory with thousands of detailed rules and
specifications. These rules consistently miss the point, though, wasting the
time and money of factory owners without bringing about noticeable improvements in
worker safety or environmental cleanliness.
All government actions, from the repair of a cracking dam to the approval of a cure for cancer, are put through inspection and review by several layers of bureaucracy in order to supposedly maintain objectivity and fairness. In actuality, the process ends up producing sub par decisions with far too much delay, and costing American taxpayers countless billions every year.
The laws of Civil Rights are supposed to grant all Americans equal treatment and freedom from prejudice in all areas of life. In practice, though, they grant unequal power to special interest minority groups and cause the proliferation of racially and otherwise biased hiring practices and an uncomfortable work atmosphere because of employers’ fears of discrimination lawsuits.
"Process" has become revered while its objectives have become forgotten: safety inspectors carefully measure the height of ladders and rails but could care less about the actual safety record, public restrooms are denied to bipedal citizens in the name of fairness to the wheelchair-bound.
According to Howard, all these problems are the result of American government replacing personal responsibility with democratic "due process" and contextual judgment with specific laws.