What is meant by "smaller government"?

Watching TV this afternoon, a gentleman being interviewed asked, "You Republicans talk about smaller government but what exactly does that mean?".   This expression, and many others in politics,  is used without enough thought given, by those desiring a smaller government,  as to whether a majority, or hopefully, a vast majority of people, understand what the meaning is.

One should never dismiss another's lack of understanding of such an important term as trivial and not worthy of an explanation.  Having been in leadership positions within the Republican Party in Hawaii, learning never to take for granted that someone under my direction was always on the same page as I, was indispensable to success in any undertaking.

So what does smaller government mean compared to larger government?  A key word to be used to explain the difference is INTRUSION.   Before getting into the use of this term, we need to know what government means and what its responsibilities are.  First of all, government has been formed to take care of the needs of a community of individuals who are unable, individually, to take care of the needs of the entire community.

Let's take the example of a town of a few thousand people.  As we drive into the center of town we see businesses and shops selling all kinds of personal items necessary for daily living. There are grocery stores, restaurants, barbershops, clothing stores and stores that handle just about anything a person within the town needs. There are churches, playgrounds, schools, a library, a firehouse, police station, a medical clinic or hospital, a post office, and a City Hall.

Besides many homes situated around the center of town which house families whose members work in the various businesses and other institutions composing the center of town, there are roads, all of which are paved; there are electrical conduits buried in the ground servicing all homes and businesses, there are also water pipes similarly buried, perhaps even gas lines and of course sewer lines in a more modern town.

When such a town is just in its beginning stages,
a few people who have built their homes and perhaps a store or two, collect together for an important meeting. The meeting has the purpose of setting up a charter which describes how the town is to be extended and what the town has as its intended purposes for the future. After the charter is completed the people elect a governing body to carry out the mission of the charter. This small governing body may consist of a Mayor and subordinates who work under the mayor.

Next the government takes shape.  They have a plan to follow, their charter.  After defining their responsibilities and establishing a reasonable system of gathering revenue through taxes, selling bonds, and borrowing from banks, the mayor and subordinates start hiring construction businesses to build the necessary infrastructure of the town so that the various utilities are provided as well as all kinds of services.

They arrange town meetings to inform residents of their progress and use feedback from the residents to make improvements in their governance.  As long as this arrangement provides for the governing body and townspeople to take responsible and active roles in expanding the town, its infrastructure and services and along the way handle the problems associated with growth, that town will survive and grow in a healthy production of goods, services and progress for all concerned; its government (in terms of personnel and revenue) will grow in proportion to the needs that a larger town requires.

As long as this sharing in vibrant, efficient, responsible action between government and residents continues, the town will thrive.  We can say this is good government; in size (employees, officials, buildings) sufficient to handle the job of governance.  This is small government.

But we are human beings full of good and bad things.  If residents don't take an active role in their government and either don't vote or vote in bad people, bad things start to happen.  Those in government start to enrich themselves with the revenues instead of using the money to take care of services and infrastructures; they then hire more people to handle regulations on businesses and properties involving fees and their collection, making sure their employees keep them in office with their vote.  So the number of government people grows, and taxes grow to keep this growth going.  Of course some money will always go to doing some of the necessary services to keep people happy.

Businesses fail from all the regulations and taxes (INTRUSION) so the government gives enough money to keep the once thriving business people alive and get their votes in return.  There are a number of scenarios we can imagine from this point.  Either the town will vanish or keep growing along with a growing government of workers, agencies, businesses that survive, people on handouts (welfare) everyone heavily taxed and beholden to a huge government feeding off the people until.............