Conservatives tend to favor less intrusive government when it comes to regulation or interference in a free-market economy and more intrusive government when it comes to compelled conformity to religious, moral, cultural, and lifestyle norms. They champion judicial activism to prohibit government intrusion on the unrestrained operation of the market and to invalidate electoral and other reforms that tend to interfere with property rights or the advantages of wealth. Liberals tend to favor less intrusive government when it comes to individual autonomy in matters of religion, morality, culture, and lifestyle and more intrusive government when it comes to regulation of the economy and electoral and other democratic reforms. They champion judicial activism to prohibit government intrusion on personal freedom or imposition of compelled conformity. Both conservatives and liberals see themselves as protecting freedom and see each other as favoring impermissible government intrusion. Neither conservatives nor liberals seem seriously bothered by judicial interference and creativity or abandonment of established rules and precedents in furtherance of their higher goals. Conservatives and liberals have each tended to advocate judicial restraint when they lose control of the courts, typically justified with the lofty stated goal of stopping the courts from interfering with the will of the people. We have become accustomed to cyclic conservative and liberal swings with accompanying complaints about activism, which mainly mask the unusually broad scope of policy making by courts in our system.~David Kairys, The Politics Of Law: A Progressive Critique
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 06:52:32 +0000
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