How to Prepare for Freedom in an Emergency

A national emergency can be anything from a hurricane or earthquake to a world war. Crises like these are accompanied by fear and a feeling of helplessness, and the cry goes up from the public for "someone" to "do something." The entities that most often answer the call are state and federal governments. In the heat of the moment, we seldom ask whether they should.

In his 1984 book Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government, Robert Higgs analyzed the way the federal government has expanded in size and scope as a result of periods of crisis. He described a "ratcheting effect" wherein the government expands significantly during a crisis, then shrinks down afterward, but never to quite as small a level as before the crisis.

My home state of Utah has not been exempt from this process. In the late 1920s, property taxes accounted for about 83 percent of the state's tax revenue, but by 1932, because of the Depression, the non-payment rate was up to 22 percent. As a result of this fiscal crisis, the legislature passed the "Emergency Revenue Act of 1933," which allowed the state to assess a sales tax of 0.75 percent on all retail purchases. Because this was only an "emergency" measure, the act included a provision for the termination of the tax. By the end of the summer of 1933, the legislature had repealed the provision for termination and upped the sales tax rate to 2 percent.

Why revisit these historical details now? Because new crises are always looming on the world's horizon: terrorism, the shaky global economy, nuclear proliferation, and global warming, to name a few. Any of these could serve as an excuse to expand governmental power. One of the most disturbing possible crises is the "Millennium Bug," also known as "Y2K," that will bite on January 1, 2000.

While it may not be necessary to expect a doomsday scenario in which the world is plunged into chaos, it is equally unreasonable, given the scope of potential problems and our general lack of preparation, to assume there will be no significant disruptions. Likewise, while we may not expect martial law, it is likely that expansion of power will be proposed as governments respond to crises if and when they arise.

Forms of martial law, as repugnant as they are, could become a reality in the case of a domestic emergency. Executive orders have been in place since the Kennedy administration to permit federal agencies to take control of food stores and food production facilities, energy production facilities, and transportation systems if the president declares a state of emergency. These orders were drafted out of concern about nuclear attacks, but they are also applicable to disaster scenarios.

More recently, in 1994, the Department of Defense issued a detailed directive on providing "military assistance for civil disturbances," in which civil disturbances are broadly defined as "insurrections, rebellions, and domestic violence under various conditions and circumstances." Such widespread federal involvement is rare, but it would not be without precedent in the twentieth century. What's more, according to Higgs' theory, even when the most draconian controls are lifted some federal expansion would remain in the form of limited rights or increased government spending.

The dominant factor in resisting this trend, Higgs writes, is ideology. If people do not believe it is appropriate for government to expand its powers for the sake of a crisis, they won't call on their representatives to do so. Even if they do, their representatives may not share that belief, and will resist the call. Such was the case in the 1890s with Grover Cleveland, who resisted pressure from the public to take the United States off the gold standard in the face of a severe recession.

Higgs warns that this will not be the case in the future. "We know that other great crises will come. When they do, governments almost certainly will gain new powers over economic and social affairs."

If a crisis should emerge, citizens will have to work to keep government in its place; if they do not, government power will balloon as it did during the Great Depression and two world wars. As an alternative, citizens would do well to concentrate on reasonable personal preparedness and voluntary support organizations like the Red Cross, churches, food banks, and shelters.

Above all, we should resist the ideological instinct to cry out to the government if Y2K or any other problem blossoms into genuine emergency.

Deborah Moeller is director of publications at The Sutherland Institute, a Utah-based public policy research institute.