S.C. Government – A National Embarrassment
ARTICLE EXPOSES STATE’S CHRONIC ASS-BACKWARDNESS
FITSNews – August 5, 2008 – South Carolina is once again making national headlines for the chronically ineffective, ass-backward clusterfuck known around here as “state gubment.”
In a new report entitled “A Government Adrift,” Governing Magazine reporter Josh Goodman takes a detailed, historical look at the evolution of the most dysfunctional form of popular governance the world has ever known …
South Carolina can thank “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman for its unique and cumbersome form of government. Tillman earned his nickname for suggesting, while a United States senator, that someone stick a pitchfork in President Grover Cleveland. But, before his time in Washington, he was governor of South Carolina. And he was the instigator of the 1895 constitution, still largely in effect.
The primary goal of that constitution was to guarantee that nobody but a white man would ever be elected governor. But the authors, in the throes of racial paranoia, went further. They divided executive power in a whole series of complex ways just to make sure that, if there ever was a black governor, he couldn’t do anything. That’s why South Carolina has nine separately elected constitutional officers, and why boards and commissions, not the governor, cast the decisive votes when it comes to running the executive agencies.
As the years passed, the governor grew weaker still as state government expanded and became more fragmented. “For every need that needed to be addressed, there was a new agency created to handle that,” says Richard Young, a veteran of state government who is now a researcher at the University of South Carolina. “There wasn’t any uniform central planning of any of this. It just evolved over time.” By 1993, the state had 145 agencies.
The article concludes that South Carolina has failed to modernize its government for the simple reason that the all-powerful S.C. General Assembly “didn’t want anything done,” a power-hungry recalcitrance that has been further cemented by the bad blood between lawmakers and Gov. Mark Sanford, who has made restructuring one of his top priorities.
Goodman’s article – easily the best encapsulation of the problem we’ve read – can be viewed in its entirety by clicking here.
Comments
By Mattheus Mei on August 5th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I agree whole-heartedly that’s why we need a constitutional convention to rid ourselves of this mess.
By Silence Dogood on August 5th, 2008 at 11:53 am
“That’s why South Carolina has nine separately elected constitutional officers, and why boards and commissions, not the governor, cast the decisive votes when it comes to running the executive agencies.”
I thought that plenty of states that had constitutions that WERE NOT designed to keep a black person from becoming governor also had similarly elected down ballot state offices?
I thought the Citadel was initially created, in part, so there would be a militar contingent available should there be a slave uprising…it is fine school today with some problems like any other college or university – but is that any reason to rip the place down?
Well probably no need because there isn’t some power hungry school administrator (govenor) trying to blame the problems he is having with the rest of the factulty (general assembly) on anything but himself?
If the article was based on some research they would have found that several other states (many southern) have more restrictive constitutions than ours, any FYI the fear was not of a black governor, but a carpetbagger northern governor. But I appreciate the more inflammatory version, hopefully it will get more people behind Sanford’s “restructuing” (i.e. give me more power) initiative.
Probably one of the slowest going governments in the nation is the Texas governor’s office where the government runs on auto pilot and legislators (at least until the past few years) met only ever other year for general session. Can you image what kind of a do-do bird you could place in the Tx. gov.’s mansion and make him look like presidentail timber…hmmm…let me ponder that one for a bit.
Could you imagine not wholly scrapping a constitution that had any reference to racial animus in it. Like say for instance 3/5 of a vote per slave?
By Patricia on November 1st, 2008 at 12:56 pm
I’ve been following you for a while and I love the site. You have said everything I’ve ever thought about this state for a long time. I don’t understand how we let it get so bad.
I’m a public official in a rural area of the state When we come together at local Municipal meetings and state wide event its mind boggling the networking we do but nothing seems to shake the people in Columbia. Its embarrassing to the state when you have conferences and meetings and you still have people make Yankee jokes like we’re still fighting the Civil War.
This is a great state with a lot to offer, when will we realize what to do about all the great site and wonder people not to mention the weather. We have great minds here but based on the view from Columbia all of us have sawdust for brains.
Thanks again for the great read.
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