Madrick The Case for Big Government

With a New preface by the author and a new foreword by Ruth O'Brien
ISBN: 978-1-4008-3480-8
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 224 Seiten

Reihe: The Public Square

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Madrick, Jeff

Weitere Mitwirkende

O'Brien, Ruth

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie
• Rechtswissenschaften Öffentliches Recht Staats- und Verfassungsrecht
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Studien zu einzelnen Ländern und Gebieten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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 ConventionalWisdom

America Has the Money

An Agenda

Notes 177

Index 195

Über Autor(innen)

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.