Why Civil Society Works Better Than Bureaucracy

By Jon Capps, Candidate for Nebraska Legislature – District 38

In rural Nebraska, we’ve never waited for permission to do the right thing. When a neighbor’s barn burns down, the community shows up. When a family is struggling, churches step in. When a town needs help, volunteers don’t ask for a grant application — they roll up their sleeves.

That’s civil society at work. And it’s one of the greatest strengths we have.

Unfortunately, the government has spent decades trying to replace that system with bureaucracy — layers of agencies, regulations, and programs that are expensive, slow, and often disconnected from the people they’re supposed to serve.

One of the clearest examples is state unfunded mandates.

Time and again, Lincoln passes new requirements for counties, schools, and local governments — but doesn’t provide the funding to carry them out. The result is predictable: higher property taxes, stretched volunteer departments, and fewer resources for the people and programs that actually serve our communities.

Instead of empowering civil society, these mandates weaken it.

I’ve seen this pattern throughout my career as a business leader and IT systems architect. Large systems become inefficient when decision-making moves too far away from the people on the ground. The same is true in government.

Here’s what works better:

1. Trust Local Communities The people closest to a problem are usually the best equipped to solve it. Whether it’s housing, public safety, or helping families in need, local organizations consistently outperform distant bureaucracies.

2. Government Should Support, Not Replace There’s a role for government — but it should empower civil society, not displace it. That means fewer unfunded mandates, fewer one-size-fits-all rules, and more flexibility for local solutions.

3. Accountability Comes From Proximity When help comes from a neighbor, a church, or a local nonprofit, accountability is built in. When it comes from a faceless agency, it’s not.

In District 38 — Clay, Nuckolls, Webster, Franklin, Harlan, Phelps, Furnas, and Red Willow counties — we already know this. Our communities function because people take responsibility for one another, not because the government tells them to.

I’m running for the Nebraska Legislature because I believe we need to restore that balance. Government should be smaller, smarter, and more restrained — and it should stop shifting its responsibilities onto local communities without providing the resources to meet them.

When we strengthen families, churches, and local organizations — and stop burdening them with unfunded mandates — we don’t just solve problems.

We preserve our way of life.

That’s the Nebraska way. And it works.