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The Case for Big Government
Political conservatives have long believed that the best government is a small government. But if this were true, noted economist Jeff Madrick argues, the nation would not be experiencing stagnant wages, rising health care costs, increasing unemployment, and concentrations of wealth for a narrow elite. In this perceptive and eye-opening book, Madrick proves that an engaged government—a big government of high taxes and wise regulations—is necessary for the social and economic answers that Americans desperately need in changing times. He shows that the big governments of past eras fostered greatness and prosperity, while weak, laissez-faire governments marked periods of corruption and exploitation. The Case for Big Government considers whether the government can adjust its current policies and set the country right.
Madrick explains why politics and economics should go hand in hand; why America benefits when the government actively nourishes economic growth; and why America must reject free market orthodoxy and adopt ambitious government-centered programs. He looks critically at today's politicians—at Republicans seeking to revive nineteenth-century principles, and at Democrats who are abandoning the pioneering efforts of the Great Society. Madrick paints a devastating portrait of the nation's declining social opportunities and how the economy has failed its workers. He looks critically at today's politicians and demonstrates that the government must correct itself to address these serious issues.
A practical call to arms, The Case for Big Government asks for innovation, experimentation, and a willingness to fail. The book sets aside ideology and proposes bold steps to ensure the nation's vitality.
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The Case for Big Government
Political conservatives have long believed that the best government is a small government. But if this were true, noted economist Jeff Madrick argues, the nation would not be experiencing stagnant wages, rising health care costs, increasing unemployment, and concentrations of wealth for a narrow elite. In this perceptive and eye-opening book, Madrick proves that an engaged government—a big government of high taxes and wise regulations—is necessary for the social and economic answers that Americans desperately need in changing times. He shows that the big governments of past eras fostered greatness and prosperity, while weak, laissez-faire governments marked periods of corruption and exploitation. The Case for Big Government considers whether the government can adjust its current policies and set the country right.
Madrick explains why politics and economics should go hand in hand; why America benefits when the government actively nourishes economic growth; and why America must reject free market orthodoxy and adopt ambitious government-centered programs. He looks critically at today's politicians—at Republicans seeking to revive nineteenth-century principles, and at Democrats who are abandoning the pioneering efforts of the Great Society. Madrick paints a devastating portrait of the nation's declining social opportunities and how the economy has failed its workers. He looks critically at today's politicians and demonstrates that the government must correct itself to address these serious issues.
A practical call to arms, The Case for Big Government asks for innovation, experimentation, and a willingness to fail. The book sets aside ideology and proposes bold steps to ensure the nation's vitality.
Political conservatives have long believed that the best government is a small government. But if this were true, noted economist Jeff Madrick argues, the nation would not be experiencing stagnant wages, rising health care costs, increasing unemployment, and concentrations of wealth for a narrow elite. In this perceptive and eye-opening book, Madrick proves that an engaged government—a big government of high taxes and wise regulations—is necessary for the social and economic answers that Americans desperately need in changing times. He shows that the big governments of past eras fostered greatness and prosperity, while weak, laissez-faire governments marked periods of corruption and exploitation. The Case for Big Government considers whether the government can adjust its current policies and set the country right.
Madrick explains why politics and economics should go hand in hand; why America benefits when the government actively nourishes economic growth; and why America must reject free market orthodoxy and adopt ambitious government-centered programs. He looks critically at today's politicians—at Republicans seeking to revive nineteenth-century principles, and at Democrats who are abandoning the pioneering efforts of the Great Society. Madrick paints a devastating portrait of the nation's declining social opportunities and how the economy has failed its workers. He looks critically at today's politicians and demonstrates that the government must correct itself to address these serious issues.
A practical call to arms, The Case for Big Government asks for innovation, experimentation, and a willingness to fail. The book sets aside ideology and proposes bold steps to ensure the nation's vitality.
With a New preface by the author and a new foreword by Ruth O'Brien
Pages:
224
Product dimensions:
5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)
About the Author
Jeff Madrick is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge magazine and senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis.
Table of Contents
Foreword xi
Preface to the Paperback Edition xiii
Part I Government and Change in America 1
The Danger of an Ideology
The Evidence
Looking-Back Narratives from the Right and Left
The Myth of Laissez-Faire
The Many Uses of Government in the 1800s
Government as an Agent of Change in the 1900s
The Economic Benefits of Government
Resisting a Pragmatic Government
Part II How Much We Have Changed 65
The History of Change
The New Challenge to the Standard of Living
The Broad Threat to the American Promise
It's Not Just Inequality
When Knowledge Also Changes
The Purpose of Government
Forsaking Pragmatism for Ideology
Part III What to Do 125
Pessimism in America
The Failure of Conventional Wisdom
America has the Money
An Agenda
Notes 177
Index 195
What People are Saying About This
Peter Lindert
Jeff Madrick calls the bluff of those who claim that larger government has to be bad for growth. He serves notice that we must now switch from such conventional mantras to reviewing the facts about modern government. The book's balanced review of American history makes it clear that 'productive government investment' is not a contradiction in terms. — Peter Lindert, University of California, Davis
Avner Offer
This timely book describes the stagnation of living standards in middle America and places an agenda for reform squarely within the American heritage. — Avner Offer, University of Oxford
Reich
Jeff Madrick makes a lucid and compelling case for why growth and prosperity depend on an effective and active government. Read this book and then go tell market fundamentalists why they're so fundamentally wrong. — Robert B. Reich, University of California, Berkeley; and former U.S. secretary of labor
From the Publisher
"Jeff Madrick makes a convincing case for the active role of government in the growth of our modern economy and our shared prosperity. Contrary to the ideology that has dominated debate in recent times, he challenges us to think anew about the responsibilities that government should meet in today's competitive global economy. As Madrick makes clear, government at its best can bring progress and greater opportunity to all citizens in countless ways that private markets can't provide, and it can do so without impairing the indispensable role of those markets."—Senator Edward M. Kennedy
"Madrick presents a well-reasoned, empirically supported argument for undoing the damage that too many years of mindless government bashing have inflicted on our capacity to achieve important societal goals."—Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA)
"Jeff Madrick makes a lucid and compelling case for why growth and prosperity depend on an effective and active government. Read this book and then go tell market fundamentalists why they're so fundamentally wrong."—Robert B. Reich, University of California, Berkeley; and former U.S. secretary of labor
"Jeff Madrick calls the bluff of those who claim that larger government has to be bad for growth. He serves notice that we must now switch from such conventional mantras to reviewing the facts about modern government. The book's balanced review of American history makes it clear that 'productive government investment' is not a contradiction in terms."—Peter Lindert, University of California, Davis
"This timely book describes the stagnation of living standards in middle America and places an agenda for reform squarely within the American heritage."—Avner Offer, University of Oxford
Barney Frank
Madrick presents a well-reasoned, empirically supported argument for undoing the damage that too many years of mindless government bashing have inflicted on our capacity to achieve important societal goals.
Edward M. Kennedy
Jeff Madrick makes a convincing case for the active role of government in the growth of our modern economy and our shared prosperity. Contrary to the ideology that has dominated debate in recent times, he challenges us to think anew about the responsibilities that government should meet in today's competitive global economy. As Madrick makes clear, government at its best can bring progress and greater opportunity to all citizens in countless ways that private markets can't provide, and it can do so without impairing the indispensable role of those markets.
