There are moments when history cuts across centuries with surprising clarity. Standing in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, Italy, and contemplating “The Work of Ambrogio Lorenzetti.”Allegory of good and bad government”, I had one of those moments.
Nearly 700 years old, the series of fresco paintings includes the depiction of a bustling city illustrating the effects of good government, as well as depictions of the decay that results from arbitrary and unjust rulers. The visual treatise on political economy contains important lessons for us today.
Lorenzetti's city is not prospering because its government is energetic or ambitious. It is prospering because a wise government knows its place.
The people who create their wealth are not politicians. They are merchants who open shops, artisans who practice their crafts, builders who build new houses, farmers who bring products to the market, families who walk safely on the streets and a couple who gets married. Prosperity comes from your willing cooperation. Government appears as the guardian of the rules that make prosperity possible: justice, security, predictable laws, and limits on arbitrary power.
That distinction is everything. The United States did not become the richest nation in history because Washington, DC, was exceptionally good at running the economy. It prospered because its institutions largely prevented Washington from interfering. The rule of law and constitutional limits have allowed millions of people to make sound decisions that no central authority could coordinate.
Lorenzetti understood that institutions shape incentives and incentives shape civilization. When political institutions protect the freedom, property, and contract rights of a people, they will invest, innovate, trade, build, and cooperate. When institutions become vehicles of arbitrary power, society reorganizes around politics instead of production, and everything declines.
That's why the most worrying trend in American politics today is not simply how remarkably bloated the government has become. The problem is that the two main political parties now feel comfortable using their power to direct private economic life, and do not seem to care whether this undermines the rule of law.
Federal spending and debt continue to rise unabated because politicians prioritize today's voters over future generations. They support industrial policy to prop up their favorite industries. The Trump administration is taking equity stakes in companies like Intel and USA Rare Earth, with some members getting rich in the process.
Meanwhile, many Democrats defend taxes on held wealth and unrealized capital gains, challenging the principle that property exists regardless of political permission. Genuine socialists Those who aspire to subordinate property rights and voluntary exchange to political power are now winning elections.
Today, Democrats and Republicans share an understanding that government must actively allocate resources, direct investment, and determine economic outcomes, often for its own benefit.
That is a change that Lorenzetti's frescoes implicitly warned against. The danger is not a poorly executed government; It's that the rules of society eventually begin to break down. Companies learn that political influence matters as much or more than serving customers. Investors are increasingly focusing more attention on Washington than on innovation. Entrepreneurs spend more time competing for subsidies than for customers. Citizens become clients of the state rather than participants in a free society. Political discretion displaces voluntary cooperation.
This transformation rarely comes in dramatic fashion. Instead, it is one exception at a time: a bailout, an industrial policy, a new entitlement, an emergency spending bill, another emergency bill that no one feels the need to pay for, a “golden stock,” a creative tax increase. Together, these changes reshape the relationship between citizen and State.
Lorenzetti's companion. representation The expression of bad government is often interpreted as a portrait of tyranny. Justice lies bound at the feet of a horned demonic ruler, its scales broken and its ropes severed. Around him, the city deteriorates: buildings collapse, the streets are emptied of commerce, shops are looted and the only workshop that continues to function belongs to the gunsmith. Soldiers seize a woman (a dark reflection of the happy bride walking through the city on the opposite wall) while a man lies murdered at her feet.
Similarly, in a painting of fieldThe figure of Security, guaranteed by law and not by whim, flies over the crop fields. In otherFear hangs over burning towns and arid lands. Same land, same people, different institutions.
But tyranny is not simply oppression. It is the condition under which political power, no longer limited by enduring principles, becomes the organizing force of society. That's where the bad gets worse. High taxes become levies intended to punish and confiscate. Regulating industries becomes the blockage of an economy. Restrictions on expression turn into censorship and book burning.
That is why institutions are important. The purpose of a constitutional government is not to directly produce prosperity. It is to prevent political power from stifling the countless acts of creativity, exchange, investment and cooperation through which free people produce prosperity for themselves.
America's greatness has never been based on the brilliance of its politicians. It is based on institutions that leave enough room for people to thrive. The lesson of Siena is that we must restore and preserve what keeps political power in check. Without it, the government does not simply redistribute wealth; it thickens and corrupts the character of the people, leading to their destruction.
Rugy Veronica He is a senior fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate.
