{"id":14605,"date":"2020-09-18T12:43:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T16:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=14605"},"modified":"2020-09-25T10:04:54","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T14:04:54","slug":"efficient-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Efficient Government: Is the US Made for Efficiency?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What makes an efficient government? How did The Federalist Papers address the concern of government waste?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Critics of the Constitution were concerned with an inefficient federal government. The Federalist Papers aimed to address their concerns by showing the possibility of an efficient government under the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about efficient government operations, particularly with revenue collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Criticisms About Inefficiency<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Critics also feared that the new federal government would be too costly. But on this point, there was also little cause for concern. Many government functions assigned to the federal government under the Constitution were already being done by the states under the Articles of Confederation. Taxpayers might end up paying more for the federal government, but they would pay less for their state governments. It might have represented a change in paymasters, but not an increase in <em>total <\/em>costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because much of the day-to-day administration would be done by the president, Congress (which had housed both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/difference-between-legislative-and-executive\/\">legislative and executive<\/a> functions under the Articles of Confederation and was therefore in constant session) would be able to adjourn more frequently. A part-time legislature would be a less burdensome public expense than a full-time one, increasing the possibility of an efficient government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lastly, <strong>state legislatures would be freed from having to handle national business<\/strong>, as they would no longer be the primary agents tasked with implementing mandates from Congress, as they had been under the Articles of Confederation. They would be able to devote their attention <em>only <\/em>to state affairs, which would cause them to be in session less frequently\u2014further saving public expense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Efficient Government Revenue Collection<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A strong Union would also provide better and more efficient means of revenue collection than would a series of independent or semi-independent states. <\/strong>Given the difficulty and cost of assessing and collecting direct taxes (like income taxes) in the 18th century, most states raised revenue from <em>indirect <\/em>taxes, mainly in the form of duties on imported goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Giving the federal union the power of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/direct-taxation-power\/\">direct taxation<\/a> wouldn\u2019t just benefit public finances; it would also be good for the broader economy. <\/strong>If the federal government had to rely solely on customs duties and excise taxes (taxes on manufactured goods levied at the point of manufacture) for its revenue, it would have to tax these items at an extraordinary rate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What makes an efficient government? How did The Federalist Papers address the concern of government waste? Critics of the Constitution were concerned with an inefficient federal government. The Federalist Papers aimed to address their concerns by showing the possibility of an efficient government under the Constitution. Read more about efficient government operations, particularly with revenue collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,39,24],"tags":[128],"class_list":["post-14605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethics","category-history","category-society","tag-the-federalist-papers","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Efficient Government: Is the US Made for Efficiency? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Concerns about a wasteful government created resistance to ratification. See how The Federalist Papers addressed an efficient government.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Efficient Government: Is the US Made for Efficiency?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Concerns about a wasteful government created resistance to ratification. See how The Federalist Papers addressed an efficient government.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-18T16:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-25T14:04:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-efficient-government-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Efficient Government: Is the US Made for Efficiency?\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-18T16:43:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-25T14:04:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/\"},\"wordCount\":392,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-efficient-government-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Federalist Papers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Ethics\",\"History\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/\",\"name\":\"Efficient Government: Is the US Made for Efficiency? - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-efficient-government-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-18T16:43:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-25T14:04:54+00:00\",\"description\":\"Concerns about a wasteful government created resistance to ratification. See how The Federalist Papers addressed an efficient government.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-efficient-government-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-efficient-government-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Efficient Government: Is the US Made for Efficiency?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\",\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rina Shah\"},\"description\":\"An avid reader for as long as she can remember, Rina\u2019s love for books began with The Boxcar Children. Her penchant for always having a book nearby has never faded, though her reading tastes have since evolved. Rina reads around 100 books every year, with a fairly even split between fiction and non-fiction. Her favorite genres are memoirs, public health, and locked room mysteries. As an attorney, Rina can\u2019t help analyzing and deconstructing arguments in any book she reads.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/rina\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Efficient Government: Is the US Made for Efficiency? - Shortform Books","description":"Concerns about a wasteful government created resistance to ratification. See how The Federalist Papers addressed an efficient government.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Efficient Government: Is the US Made for Efficiency?","og_description":"Concerns about a wasteful government created resistance to ratification. See how The Federalist Papers addressed an efficient government.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2020-09-18T16:43:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-09-25T14:04:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1707,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-efficient-government-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rina Shah","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rina Shah","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/"},"author":{"name":"Rina Shah","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287"},"headline":"Efficient Government: Is the US Made for Efficiency?","datePublished":"2020-09-18T16:43:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-25T14:04:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/"},"wordCount":392,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-efficient-government-scaled.jpg","keywords":["The Federalist Papers"],"articleSection":["Ethics","History","Society"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/","name":"Efficient Government: Is the US Made for Efficiency? - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-efficient-government-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2020-09-18T16:43:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-25T14:04:54+00:00","description":"Concerns about a wasteful government created resistance to ratification. See how The Federalist Papers addressed an efficient government.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-efficient-government-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-efficient-government-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1707},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/efficient-government\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Efficient Government: Is the US Made for Efficiency?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287","name":"Rina Shah","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rina Shah"},"description":"An avid reader for as long as she can remember, Rina\u2019s love for books began with The Boxcar Children. Her penchant for always having a book nearby has never faded, though her reading tastes have since evolved. Rina reads around 100 books every year, with a fairly even split between fiction and non-fiction. Her favorite genres are memoirs, public health, and locked room mysteries. As an attorney, Rina can\u2019t help analyzing and deconstructing arguments in any book she reads.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/rina\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-efficient-government-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14605"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14942,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14605\/revisions\/14942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}