Augustine’s Critiques of Big Government

Augustine says a lot about government, but one comment on the nature of the family actually gives a clear explanation of his first motives. He writes that even a family, ideally the most unified group of people within society is unable to contain their bickering. He uses this to illustrate how deeply broken human nature is, and how even in the best conditions we will turn to selfishness and sin. He then extends this observation to the city: if even the family cannot live peacefully, how much more can we not expect the city to do so. He points to the countless images of human sin and evil within every human city. He recognizes that different clusters of people within a city desire different things that lead them into conflict with one another. Rather than arguing that we just haven’t found the best form of government yet, he actually chooses to state that we should not put our hope in government. Augustine continues this line of thought through much of his writing and makes observations about humanity that show how our evil must be bounded both inside and outside of government and that we cannot look to government to be our ultimate hope. 

Augustine writes that our greatest responsibility is to those near us. Every person cannot have an infinite responsibility to solve the problems of the entire world. This aligns with Hayek’s understanding of the use of knowledge in society. Those far away from a situation cannot understand how best to help. Augustine’s understanding of human limitation allows him to create a form of responsibility that is aligned with our agency. When responsibility, knowledge, and ability to act are not aligned, people naturally feel extremely unhappy. While hundreds of years before Austrian economists, Augustine’s pursuit of the truth, led him to an understanding of the human reach that aligns with Austrian economics. Augustine wouldn’t agree with the Austrians on everything, because most of them were not Christian, or believed that enforcing moral standards in society was counterproductive, but the emphasis on the people proximate to an individual leaves the base layer for a later rejection of centralized control of every element of life.…