https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2012/07/07/the-lamps-of-liberty-are-going-out/feed/HotAir is the leading conservative blog for breaking news and commentary covering the Biden administration, politics, media, culture, and current elections.en-usTue, 09 Jun 2026 13:11:36 -0400<![CDATA[Insofar as it works at all, Big Government works best in small, highly developed, northern Continental nation-states with a sufficiently homogeneous population to have sufficiently common interests. You can get by with it for a while in Mediterranean Europe, mainly because of a somewhat desultory attitude to the rule of law: In Italy and Greece, there are prohibitions against everything, but nobody obeys them and so, after a fashion, life goes on. Anglophone nations are generally disposed to abide by the law, and so, if there are a bazillion regulations, the average citizen will make a sincere effort to comply. But if you’re, say, Australia and you’re attempting to design a health-care system for 20 million people across an entire continent, it’s just about doable.]]>Sat, 07 Jul 2012 21:20:58 -0400<![CDATA[Allahpundit]]>https://hotair.com/headlines/2012/07/07/the-lamps-of-liberty-are-going-out-n93966