The return of big government means that policymakers must grapple again with some basic questions. They are now even harder to answer…
Fifteen years ago it seemed that the great debate about the proper size and role of the state had been resolved. In Britain and America alike, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton pronounced the last rites of “the era of big government”. Privatising state-run companies was all the rage. The Washington consensus reigned supreme: persuade governments to put on “the golden straitjacket”, in Tom Friedman’s phrase, and prosperity would follow.
Today big government is back with a vengeance: not just as a brute fact, but as a vigorous ideology…
Read this comparative perspective arguing for smaller government. And respond to these questions.
