Government's End

Read this book in an American Government class my first semester of college, and to this day it remains one of the most informative and influential books I've read.

If you're trying to understand why the federal government is deaf to the needs of its citizens, this book will tell you why. Further, if there is any question why John McCain strikes such a chord with the American people, the answer will be found in here. Yes, the economy is doing great (and the polls say Americans agree). Yes, our position in the world is dominant (and Americans agree). But when it comes to the performance of the government, you can see the vein bulging on the average American's forehead. Washington has "stopped working," in Mr. Rauch's words and in his book, he explains why. The culprit is an explosion of special interests who seek to exploit political and finiancial gain from our nation's capital. The myth of the "national interest" has been quietly put to rest. In its place is the roar of special interests who sap the nation's economy, stifle legislation, and stir public cynicism. Mr. Rauch is a bit too cynical about the prospects for reform; I do not share his belief that government has "ended." Hopefully, the next generation of political leaders, heeding Rauch's warning, will prove him wrong.

It is hard to express how good a job Rauch does at putting forward his view of Wahington. He paints a vivid, believeable, coherent picture; he is fair-minded and nonjudgmental to a fault (truly - he is much too kind to many people); his pronouncements on, and advice for the future are measured and realistic, and not completely unconvincing; and on top of this the book reads very quickly. Greider's "Who Will Tell the People" is comparable in message, but, while very well done, that much larger book fails to present as clear a testament to what has happened to Washington in the last 40 years. Though people who are interested in politics should already have come to grips with Rauch's thesis, the fact is that most have not, while the average, relatively apolitical American would no doubt find this book quite an eye-opener. As the other reviewers note, Rauch is a consistently fine writer; here is a good place place to start reading.

I've always been a big fan of Demosclerosis and I'm also a big fan of this book, which is a heavily revised version. The revision is heavy enough that I felt I got my money's worth with this new edition. If you haven't read Demosclerosis, buy this book. If you have, you may want to buy it anyway for the new content. Rauch puts his finger on the reason why special-interest gridlock creates a polity that is considerably less than the sum of its parts. There are also some brutally effective graphics -- my favorite being the (declining) confidence in government as a near-perfect reciprocal of the (increasing) number of pages of federal statutes. Buy it, read it, send copies to your friends.

Jonathan Rauch, in my estimation, is the best political essayist in the business. His column in National Journal contains the most insightful and intelligent analysis I've ever come across. On the strength of his columns, I ordered Government's End several months before it was published. Upon receiving it in the mail, I read it immediately. To say the very least, I was not disappointed. Government's End forces those of us who wish to reform Washington to confront the ineluctable logic of transfer-seeking and its corrosive effect on government efficacy. In describing the "demosclerosis" caused by transfer-seeking, he presents a rigorous examination of economic and policy trends. At the same time, he never gives in to histrionics. Rauch has convinced me to abandon some of my grandiose ambitions for reform. At the same time, he has inspired me to seek effective treatments for our enduring "demosclerosis."