Why Government Succeeds and Why It Fails

Most economists have a list in their heads of the conditions under which markets fail. Most political scientists have a set of theories about why politicians may fail to represent notions of the "public interest." The authors here ask a different type of question, which is often overlooked: under what economic conditions are government policies likely to work? Across many different areas of public policy, they illustrate how the success or failure of policies can be predicted. This is an excellent book. It will be a welcome addition to many different types of classes where public policies are debated and examined. -- James T. Hamilton, Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University A very important book, Why Government Succeeds and Why It Fails goes well beyond standard public choice theory in several regards. First and most importantly, it advances the debate over government failure. Rather than staking out a simplistic "pro-government" or "anti-government" position, it helps us determine when government policy is likely to succeed. Second, the book shows that credibility is a more important concept than had previously been realized. And third, it offers new and striking analysis and evidence on particular policies, such as recent attempts to make government more accountable. On top of all this, the book is highly readable and will command significant attention across a variety of disciplines. -- Tyler Cowen, George Mason University

Glazer argues that the U.S. government's ability to implement policies is strongly affected by economic constraints, such as their credibility, the level of government commitment, the extent to which firms and consumers rationally anticipate their effects, and whether policy success encourages firms and individuals to behave in intended ways.

This book looks beyond politics to show how the ability of the U.S. government to implement policies is strongly affected by various economic constraints. These include the credibility of the policies, the ability of government to commit to them, the extent to which firms and consumers rationally anticipate their effects, whether the success of a policy further encourages firms and individuals to behave in intended ways, and whether the behavior of such actors can be sustained without continued government intervention.

The authors apply these concepts to four areas of policy: macroeconomic policies to promote employment and economic growth, redistributive policies to benefit the poor and the elderly, production policies to provide goods and services, and regulatory policies to guide the behavior of firms and individuals. In doing so they provide plausible explanations of many puzzling phenomena—for example, why government has been successful in reducing cigarette smoking, but has failed to get people to install and maintain emission-control devices in their cars.

This book recasts debates about public policy, avoiding conventional “pro-government” or “anti-government” positions; rather, it helps to predict when public policy will succeed.