Can Big Government Be Rolled Back?
By Carl Close • Tuesday October 11, 2011 9:10 AM PDT • 1 Comment
The U.S. government is involved in the American economy on a scale that few would have predicted a century ago. In 1900, Uncle Sam spent about 3 percent of national income, and state and local governments spent about 6 percent. Today, federal spending amounts to about 30 percent of national income—roughly double what state and local governments spend combined. Must advocates of limited government resign themselves to the Leviathan state?
The answer, according to J. R. Clark and Dwight R. Lee, is a resounding no. The task of reversing the growth of government is formidable—even herculean—but it is in principle doable.
In fact, some of the mechanisms that served to increase the size and scope of government over the past century could also serve to reverse the trend toward Big Government, the two economists explain in their article for the fall 2011 issue of The Independent Review, “Shrinking Leviathan: Can the Interaction Between Interests and Ideology Slice Both Ways?”
As advocates of Big Government became more numerous, their goals became more attainable, and this spurred them to invest more resources in their cause, which in turn made their movement more popular. But that kind of bandwagon behavior—what Clark and Lee call an “ideological network effect”—can also work in the opposite direction: if more people grow disenchanted with Big Government, the perceived value of working to reduce it will rise, making retrenchment more popular and more likely.
Moreover, voter behavior would reinforce such a trend. Because voters know that a single vote doesn’t decide an election, they vote largely according to their ideology, rather than according to whether they might gain or lose a perceived government perk.
These two phenomena—ideological network effects and the indecisiveness of voting—could enable an initially minor ideological trend that favors shrinking government to become a major political force that defeats the supporters of Big Government. That outcome could happen more quickly than one might expect, but only if the foes of Big Government work hard to achieve their goal.
Shrinking Leviathan: Can the Interaction Between Interests and Ideology Slice Both Ways?, by J. R. Clark and Dwight R. Lee (The Independent Review, Fall 2011)
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[This post first appeared in the October 11, 2011, issue of The Lighthouse. To receive this weekly email newsletter of publication summaries and event announcements from the Independent Institute, enter your email address here.]
Facebook image via bigovsurvivalkit.com
Tags: Budget and Tax Policy, Elections, Politics, The State 
The power Elite,over the last 80 years or so, have done an excellent job of creating a constituency of dependency among the American voting age population. In fact,this constituency probably consists of over 3/4 of the adult population. Every group from government employees,retired government employees,welfare recipients,seniors on Social Security and Medicare,the Unemployed,retired military,student loan and grant recipients,food stamp recipients etc.etc.,the list is endless,is trying to get their “fair share” of the benefits that a big government with the power to tax big can provide. Now that the country is bankrupt,hopelessly in debt and taxed out the wazoo who is going to be the 1st of this constituency of dependency to give up their benefits and earn their way in the great American Free Enterprise system? The problem is that the era of “rugged individualism” and self reliance,for the most part,ended with the New Deal and the Great Society. To the average productive citizen who plays by the rules and spends a lifetime paying taxes this is a bad bargain. Is it any wonder that when productive people look at how their paychecks are looted that when they get laid off and can’t find a job that they grab all the unemployment benefits they can. Or the person who is self employed and spends a lifetime paying Social Security taxes ,when they reach retirement age try to grab as much as they can. The only sane word that comes to mind when dealing with this situation is the word dismantlement. That is dismantlement across the board. Whether the average American has the will to vote for people who will follow through on this dismantling of big government is hard to imagine. I would say that after 80 years of socialism,the average American would be happy living in a world of serfdom and serf masters.
Libertarian Jerry | Oct 14, 2011 | Reply