Liberum Veto

Senator Jim DeMint “warned his colleagues Monday night that he would place a hold on all legislation” that he hasn’t personally approved. My colleague Ian Milhiser refers to this as a threat to trigger the Senate’s doomsday device, noting that “the Senate’s rules are ripe for abuse” and historically the body has managed to function largely because Senators have restrained themselves from engaging in egregious behavior.

I was discussing the tit-for-tat cycle of Senate procedural abuse with someone over the weekend who compared it to a late Roman Republic dynamic. But like Neil Sinhababu, I think the proper analogy is to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which institutionalized a version of what DeMint is doing, the liberum veto that let any member of the assembly of nobles block action.

I’m not generally a fan of citing the founders as authorities, but since some people are under the misimpression that Senate dysfunction is part of some genius founding scheme, it’s worth observing that according to Hamilton & Madison, a Polish-style national legislation is precisely what they’re trying to avoid:

If more direct examples were wanting, Poland, as a government over local sovereigns, might not improperly be taken notice of. Nor could any proof more striking be given of the calamities flowing from such institutions. Equally unfit for self-government and self-defense, it has long been at the mercy of its powerful neighbors; who have lately had the mercy to disburden it of one third of its people and territories.

Indeed, Poland would be further partitioned twice more and go out of existence before 1800. That said, I’ve long harbored doubts about the Hamilton/Madison theory of historical causation here. But there’s some evidence for the thesis, and one way or another it’s perfectly clear that this was the outcome the founders didn’t want.