“I understand, Curmudge, that our remaining discussions on
curmudgeonocracy will be based on books.
Heretofore they have been based on bits and pieces of info from Google,
Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and a professional career in chemistry,
quality management, and regulatory compliance. Although you did take a course in government 60 years ago.”
“It was required, Julie.
Classes were at night after work in Cleveland.
I read the text over weekends while
sitting on the bank of Lake Erie wishing it were clean (the lake, not the
text).
Now I read sitting at my
table in—as you call it—the old folks home.
The books of current interest are
Why Government Fails So Often by Peter H. Schuck,
The Fourth Revolution by John
Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, and
Room
to Grow by the YG Network.
Actually, our discussion of Schuck’s book will be based on a review (1);
it’s also reviewed on
Amazon.
I didn’t buy the book, but I should
have.
My head had already been
filled with examples of government failures.”
Why Government Fails So Often
“We’ve already noted several examples of government failures
in our Curmudgeonocracy 6, 7,and 8 postings, Curmudge. If Schuck also describes them, why beat
a dead horse?”
“Because it’s not dead, chère
etudiante. It’s alive and well
and living in Washington. Also,
it’s reassuring to learn that Schuck agrees with our observations. In his review, Levin says (quoting
Schuck) that to be successful, public policy must get these things right:
incentives, instruments, information, adaptability, credibility, and
management. And our government is
bad at all of them. (I’m tempted
to buy the book to get more details.)
Shuck also said that, ‘it is essentially impossible for centralized
managers to consolidate information to the degree necessary to manage complex
social systems.’ And when they
fail, bureaucracies demand more power.”
“Also echoing Hayek, Schuck said, ‘When one compares
government and market provision of essentially the same services, the
inescapable conclusion is that the (free) market almost always performs more
cost-effectively.’ But private
companies do not totally escape blame.
They have been known to use political contributions to influence
policies that might give them an advantage over competitors.”
“Here, Curmudgde, is a final quotation from Schuck’s book: ‘The
relationship between government’s growing ambition and its endemic failures is
rooted in an inescapable structural condition: officials’ meager tools and
limited understanding of the opaque, complex social world that they aim to
manipulate.’ “
“Julie, I guess that means that there are a lot of things
that big government cannot do well and probably shouldn’t attempt.”
The Fourth Revolution:
The Global Race to Reinvent the Stateayek,
Schuck said, ‘h
“Wow, Curmudge!
The book by
Micklethwait
and Wooldridge (M&W) is 270 pages of fine-print text and 18 pages of
references.
You said it took two
weeks to read, and you wore out a highlighter.
At least it kept you off the streets and out of the bars, of
which Appleton has an abundance.”
“Correct as usual, Julie. The early part of the book is sort of a textbook of
political history; we touched on some of that in our earlier Curmudgeonocracy
postings. So from M&W we’ll
just list dates, dominant concepts, and influential authors. Overall, the book’s observations
regarding the ills of big government parallel those noted by Schuck. You and I should be pleased that there
are prestigious authors out there who agree with us that our government is a
mess (their word).”
“So here, Professor, is M&W’s political history in a
nutshell:
The politics of the 16th and 17th
centuries emphasized sovereign power.
In his book Leviathan Thomas
Hobbs obbsHhintroduced the
modern nation-state and the idea of a social contract between ruler and
ruled. War was endemic, and people
chose to associate with one another out of fear for their safety. The state’s first duty was to provide
law and order.
But as the nation-states evolved in Europe, power became concentrated in the
landed gentry who acquired wealth via ‘old corruption.’ In the 19th century John
Stuart Mill, William Gladstone and others in Britain led ‘a silent revolution
that replaced the ancient regime of privilege, patronage, and purchase with a
capitalist state.’ At the end of
the century Gladstone said, ‘If the government takes into its hands that which
the man ought to do for himself, it will inflict upon him greater mischiefs
than all the benefits he will have received.’
Beatrice Webb thought otherwise. She believed in an ever-expanding role for government
including ‘collective ownership wherever practicable and collective regulation
everywhere else’ including managing people’s breeding habits. The triumph of statist thinking in
Britain was repeated around the world, including Russia and Germany as
communism and fascism. By the time
Beatrice Webb died in 1943, Britain had plans for destroying the ‘five great
evils’ of want, disease, ignorance, squalor, and idleness. The 1960’s saw the apogee of the
state’s being the ‘universal provider’ in Britain. It was becoming evident that ‘the man receiving the welfare check or the state pension
was not grateful; it was a right—and he was entitled to it.’ “
“Good recitation, Julie.
And of course we’ve already discussed the more recent
history of socialism in Great Britain in our
7/06/14
posting.
Let’s now look at
M&W’s comments about the U.S.—I actually remember most of the events—and
their further observations about Britain:
‘By the 1970’s the American government seemed to be failing
at everything it touched—wars (Vietnam), the economy (stagflation), crime (the
drug epidemic), social cohesion (the culture wars).’
Big government had overextended itself, consistent with
Lyndon Johnson’s statement, ‘We’re in favor of a lot of things and we’re
against mighty few.’
Urban
planners tore down working-class neighborhoods and ‘shoved the poor into “the
projects,” vertical ghettos.’
In
Chicago the
Guardian
Angels (including Doc Mack, one of our editors) rode the ‘El’ to protect
riders from crime.
But the
Guardian Angels regarded “the projects” too dangerous to enter.
The time had come for Margaret Thatcher
in Britain and Ronald Reagan in the U.S.
Although Reagan was able to revive the economy with tax cuts, he could
not convince Congress to enact cuts in spending.
Nevertheless, in 1992 Bill Clinton proclaimed that ‘the age
of big government was over.’
But
it wasn’t.”
“Next, Old Man, let’s catch a flight to Asia on an M&W
777 and hope it doesn’t disappear over the Pacific. In their discussion of Asia, M&W examined two countries;
Singapore as a model and China as a potential competitor. Both countries believe strongly in
efficient government. Those who
work in government in both countries receive extensive training, including
back-and-forth stints in government and industry. A Chinese official was amazed that U.S. foreign policy is
managed by (domestic) politicians.
‘Singaporeans pay a fifth of their salaries into the Central
Provident Fund, with their employers contributing another 15.5%. That provides them with the wherewithal
to pay for their housing, pensions, and health care.’ In this way the state is kept small, and people are
responsible for their own welfare.
‘The Chinese state is a paragon of efficiency—especially
compared with the fevered gridlock of Washington or the panicky incompetence of
Brussels.’ On the negative side,
the Chinese state (in actuality, the Chinese Communist Party) is involved in
everything and is permeated with elitism and corruption. However, after describing China’s
problems in detail, M&W conclude that ‘the Asian alternative is undoubtedly
the most substantial challenge that the Western model has ever faced.’ “
“I propose, Julie, that we catch a flight back to the
Western Hemisphere and take a few days off to cure our jetlag. In our next posting I hope to wrap up The Fourth Revolution and tackle Room to Grow.”
Kaizen Curmudgeon
(1) Levin,
Yuval Review of Why Government Fails So Often by Peter
H. Schuck, in The Wall Street Journal 6/10/14, p. A13.
