The Political HP

[davewitley]

Jim Ferer wrote:

> JKR doesn't seem to trust large, intrusive government, so I think 
she
> is taking something of a libertarian tack here. 

I don't see anything uniquely libertarian in her implied criticisms.  
Any democrat across the political spectrum would agree that there are 
glaring flaws in the governance, judicial processes, and so on, of 
the wizarding world.

Within the world of Harry Potter, she just doesn't seem interested in 
the issues that particularly animate libertarians.  On the one hand, 
she doesn't have Florean Fortescue whine about taxation, or present 
Percy's regulations as strangling the wizarding economy.  On the 
other, she doesn't try to skewer libertarian beliefs through satire 
(imagine Vernon Dursley as a libertarian!), either.

I think it's hard to know what she does think, or what to draw 
politically from the books.  The way Dumbledore governs Hogwarts 
suggests that, with a bad headmaster, it could be a pretty awful 
place, but JKR doesn't seem concerned about it.

David