Question

which of the following principles you think is most important to the American system of government and why-limited government, individual rights, or federalism.

Answer 1

Limited government, because it allows a nice clearence for individual rights to flourish and expand. Also Limited government decreases federalism and deters it.

Answer 2

In consideration of the Devil's Advocate - you could argue that Federalism ensure the existence of individual rights. During the Civil Rights era, federalism helped protect the individual rights of minorities by providing a means to eliminate the segregation.

Answer 3

Limited government. Take a look at Europe today to see why. Europe has a very strong (recent) tradition of individual rights, arguably stronger than the United States in some areas, and the federalism of having separate nations is even stronger than having separate states within the United States.

Nevertheless, Europe is in severe crisis and decline, with anemic economic growth for the past generation and as far as the eye can see, wholly unsustainable entitlements -- pensions that will never be paid the way they were promised -- enormous and dispiriting unemployment among young people, and crushing taxes and debt. Its best and brightest routinely emigrate to the United States to pursue brighter futures.

What went wrong? Too much power in government, I think. When government can do ANTYHING, the temptation is just too strong to meddle with EVERYTHING. And when you meddle with things you don't really understand, you are more likely to break them than fix them. Furthemore, you undermine the sense of self-reliance and initiative of the people as individuals, since everyone looks to some government fix to fix every problem, from old age to sickness to bad luck. It's a giant social rot, and you end up hopeless and angry and poor.

The sad fact of the matter is that human beings are at their tip-top best when they are a little scared -- when they're running against competittion, when they are operating without a net, when a slip means serious injury, and when we know our success is entirely in our own hands -- no one will save us if we fall. These circumstances bring out our best efforts. When, by contrast, we are able to believe that someone else will always catch us, when we can hide in a crowd and give up our sense of individual responsibility, be an anonymous "consumer" or "citizen" instead of John Q. Doe or Mary K. Roe, by name -- we just don't do as well. We get lazy, undisciplined, frustrated, ignorant, dependent, and unhappy.

So until we can find a way to genetically engineer our natures into something different, we are stuck with the fact that we will always do better if we are NOT given the security for which we long.