{"id":23,"date":"2025-04-30T14:48:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T18:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/?p=23"},"modified":"2025-04-30T14:48:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T18:48:25","slug":"war-powers-are-a-public-good-that-must-be-scrutinized-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/04\/30\/war-powers-are-a-public-good-that-must-be-scrutinized-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","title":{"rendered":"War powers are a public good that must be scrutinized \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Economists use public good theory to think about government programs. A pure public good is a good that benefits everyone. Indeed, no one can be excluded from its benefits. National defense is a quintessential public good. Protection from foreign invaders for one is protection for all. Because people can receive the benefits without paying (free-ride), governments are justified in forcing people to pay taxes.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">But this insight immediately leads to another problem noted for millennia:<\/span> <span data-contrast=\"auto\">Who will guard the guards themselves? We don\u2019t want a public good to become a public bad. We want a military strong enough to defend us, but we also don\u2019t want it to trample on our personal freedom. The Supreme Court has found the power to declare war gives the Federal Government broad powers. These include the authority to charter the Bank of the United States (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/constitution.congress.gov\/browse\/essay\/artI-S8-C11-2\/ALDE_00013588\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">McCulloch v. Maryland<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">) and to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/tile.loc.gov\/storage-services\/service\/ll\/usrep\/usrep333\/usrep333138\/usrep333138.pdf\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">continue rent control laws<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> after World War II. But the court expressed concern that the War Powers could be used to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/tile.loc.gov\/storage-services\/service\/ll\/usrep\/usrep333\/usrep333138\/usrep333138.pdf\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u201clargely obliterate the Ninth and Tenth Amendments<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201d. Justice <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/constitution.congress.gov\/browse\/essay\/artI-S8-C11-2\/ALDE_00013588\/#ALDF_00026399\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Robert Jackson added<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> that war powers are one of the most dangerous for a free government and must be scrutinized with care.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">One limit on the power of the military is that our 1791 constitution made the elected President its Commander-in-Chief. Since then, no military commander has successfully challenged the President\u2019s authority or attempted a coup d\u2019etat to remove the President. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.trumanlibrary.gov\/education\/presidential-inquiries\/firing-macarthur\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">President Truman famously fired General MacArthur.<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">On the other hand, we don\u2019t want the President using the military to stay in power. In 1948, former Costa Rican president Calder\u00f3n claimed the election results were fraudulent. He appealed to the legislature, which his party controlled, to void the results and used the army to stay in power. Overturning the election led to civil war. Calder\u00f3n lost the war.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">As a result of the Costa Rican Civil War, on December 1, 1948, incoming <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jos%C3%A9_Figueres_Ferrer\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Costa Rican president Figueres restrained the power of the military by abolishing the army<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. In its place he created a national police force. Ever <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">since then, Costa Rica\u2019s transfers of power have been peaceful.<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> However, without a military, President Figueres later had to appeal to and receive help from the United States during a border confrontation with Nicaragua.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">As Justice Jackson indicated, having a sufficiently strong military while guarding against the abuse of war powers requires careful scrutiny. And maybe a little bit of historical luck.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Economists use public good theory to think about government programs. A pure public good is a good that benefits everyone. Indeed, no one can be excluded from its benefits. National defense is a quintessential public good. Protection from foreign invaders for one is protection for all. Because people can receive the benefits without paying (free-ride), [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[166,177,77,180,174,178,125,179,161,176,55,172,167,163,160,170,164,175,159,168,165,162,171,173,169],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bank-of-the-united-states","tag-calderon","tag-civil-war","tag-costa-rica","tag-coup-detat","tag-election","tag-federal-government","tag-figueres","tag-free-ride","tag-general-macarthur","tag-government","tag-justice-robert-jackson","tag-mcculloh-v-maryland","tag-military","tag-national-defense","tag-ninth-amendment","tag-personal-freedom","tag-president-truman","tag-public-good","tag-rent-control","tag-supreme-court","tag-taxes","tag-tenth-amendment","tag-war-powers","tag-world-war-ii"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>War powers are a public good that must be scrutinized \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/04\/30\/war-powers-are-a-public-good-that-must-be-scrutinized-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"War powers are a public good that must be scrutinized \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Economists use public good theory to think about government programs. 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