"Ending Big SIS (The Special Interest State) and Renewing the
American Republic" is a stern look at the current crisis in
politics and government. The surface problems are known to all:
uncontrolled spending; exploding debt; legal and regulatory
absurdity; imperious bureaucracy; misdirected investment; and
crippled private businesses and institutions. But these are
actually symptoms, not basic problems. They cannot be cured until
we face up to a deep crack in the structure of our political
institutions. We have allowed special interest groups of all kinds
- the Founders of the republic called them "factions" - to capture
segments of the government and then use its sovereign powers to
tax, legislate, spend, and regulate to promote their own agendas
rather than the interests of the nation as a whole. Indeed, we
celebrate capture. We assume that this jockeying for governmental
advantage is part of democracy, and that somehow it will all work
out. But it will not work out, because too many interests have won
too much over too long a period. Our institutions, which were
designed to make government act slowly, make it impossible to
reverse course, especially because the winning interests support
politicians who will block reform. In fact, the problems will
worsen, as ever-more groups demand a share of the pie. The Founders
regarded capture by faction as a threat to the existence of the
republic, using, in the words of one historian, "a dreadful image
of a spreading rot" of a cancer eating at the vitals of the body
politic. They were right, and American politics is approaching the
day when the very legitimacy of the government will come into
question. The book assesses the fears of the Founders, how their
ideas governed our political arrangements for 150 years, and the
rise of the special interest state in the 20th century. It analyzes
the powerful forces that uphold Big SIS, and closes with some
specific suggestions on how to reverse course. From the book: The
Founders' view: Like architects analyzing the lines of force
necessary to prevent the collapse of a building, the Founders
focused on making the forces of factional passion neutralize each
other, thus keeping the republic standing. (p.2) Effect on other
institutions: The leverage exerted by Big SIS affects decisions far
beyond the money that it commandeers directly. It distorts the
incentive structures throughout society, and sends investors and
workers skittering off in unproductive directions. (p.91) The
ratchet: Big SIS is a ratchet that allows] motion in one direction
only - toward greater government activism -- and then locks.
(p.112) Rational ignorance: As more rules are created, and as
complexity and opacity grow, it becomes more difficult to be
"well-informed." The rational response is not to increase one's
efforts but to cut them back, becoming even less diligent in
seeking knowledge. 9p.119) Rapacity: The interest gets the benefits
while the costs are borne by society at large, so there is "no
constraint on the social cost such an organization will find it
expedient to impose on society in the course of obtaining a larger
share of the social output for itself." (p.120) True Greens: T]he
strongest clients of the True Green agencies would regard shutting
down most industry as a worthy sacrifice to Gaia. (p.146)
Motivations: The power motive is as strong as the profit motive and
is usually more destructive. (p.178) Legitimacy: A dire consequence
of a government's loss of legitimacy: in a crisis, people do not
step up to defend it. . . . Lenin said that the Bolsheviks did not
seize power in 1917; they found it lying in the gutter and picked
it up. (p.168)
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