Customer Reviews

That's Not What We Meant to Do: Reform and Its Unintended Consequences in the Twentieth Century

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This book should be required reading for all politicians (and would be politicians). A thoughtful, exceptionally well-written, and balanced look at how legislation often strays from original intent. A great read. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn about American government and politics.

It's a shame that most politicans haven't read this book because if they did, many of the same mistakes so astutely pointed out in it would not have been repeated (to the tee) during this new 'push' for Homeland Security (with a capital H and S.)

All modern references aside, Mr. Gillon has done us a service in writing a book that even-handedly deals with unintended consequences of certain past legislation in the hopes that we may avoid them in the future. Looking at failed welfare, immigration, affirmative action, mental health and campaign finance legislation, Gillon presents us with an educational (and mildly entertaining) lesson: LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP!!!

But here's the problem; Gillon never quite sums it up. Reading through each chapter examining its respective reform, Gillon tells these tales AS tales without ever writing "and the moral of the story is..." The underlying problems leading to unintended consequences, although many in truth, boil down to a few basics. The problem of legislation 'modification' by special interest, the problem of congressional group-think (we should all be worried when a bill passes by a huge margin), the problem of new legislation clashing with old legislation not thought of or any varying social factor that was not accounted for, and poor implementation due to open-ended, sticky language in the bill leading to multiple 'interpretations.' Indeed, all of these are present in the book, but Gillon gives us history ONLY, at the expense of the book containing a thesis and possible argument.

Of course, if one wants to explore unintended consequences, one could read Thomas Sowell's "Vision of the Annointed" and "Knowledge and Decisions" or any one of Friedrich Hayek's books. Still, despite Gillons minor (and I guess it is rather minor) flaw, this book is an excellent presentation of how legislation fails; just not why it fails.

This author really knows his legislative history - and how to make it readable to the novice. His tracing of a number of the "great reforms" - welfare, community based mental health care, equal oppotunity, etc. and where the best intentions of legislation actually took us is a real eye-opener.

He also manages to be notably even-handed, although it is noticeable where his sympathies lie. Both my father and I (at opposite ends of the political spectrum) enjoyed it greatly.

Excerpts from book review by Robert Heinemen in The Independent Review (Fall 2001)

The achievement of the Founding Fathers continues to confound social reformers. In That's Not What We Meant to Do, Seven M. Gillon, an established historian of American liberalism now at the University of Oklahoma, provides ample evidence of the unintended consequences and hardships that reformers can engender by insisting that government implement their vision of the good. Gillon does a thorough, readable job of navigating the intricacies of the American policy process, and there is much to be gained from reading his analyses of the twists and turns of the policies emanating from congressional legislation in five major areas.

Throughout, however, he assumed that with the proper planning and tinkering, institutions originally designed primarily to limit government and to promote individual liberty can be adapted to engineer major social reform. The need, in his mind, is to "try to plot better and wiser courses". Of course, some basic government programs work reasonably well and generally as intended, but many readers of Gillon's case studies may conclude that when social reform is the goal, such successes will always be the exception.

When examined closely, Gillon's case studies suggest alternative expanations for the frequency of unintended consequences. For example, it appears typical for those in Washington both to define the problem and then to offer government as the instrument of solution. Moreover, Gillon amply demonstrates that major reform initiatives, however well intentioned, are easily distorted beyond recognition by the very policy process in which they are initiated. At the various stages of the implementation, rival bureaucratic goals, diverse interest-group claims,the judiciary, competing state priorities, and changing conditions weak havoc on the most carefully formulated plans. Even more discouraging, many programs are authorized on the basis of faulty and unexamined assumptions. Too often, the bitter fruits of well-meaning projects originating from a government-knows-best attitude have been social disruption and human tragedy. For many readers, the most important consequence of Gillon's effort, whther intended or not, will be a greater appreciation of the political acumen of the Founding Fathers and of the virtuesof limited government.

As we struggle with government reform, this is a must-read for all politicians. Gillon spells out in detail how unintended consequences come about.
Guess what? We are in for more train wrecks courtesy of Washington due to a thing called subgovernments. If anything they have gotten stronger since this book was written a decade ago.

This is a useful book for anyone interested in government programs that
affect society. Gillon gives us an evenhanded history of several such
attempts. I'm not an expert about any of the areas, but I found nothing
that I recalled differently, and nothing that smelled like distortion.

Liberal politicians should read it to learn how far their results can be
from their desires. Perhaps they can learn to be more careful. Conservative
politicians should read it to realize how much worse things can get when
anyone tries to manage society.

Bureaucrats and regulators should read it to learn how far and how fast
and how successfully they can use a law to do exactly the opposite of
what the law says and advance their own power.

This is interesting history. The cases call on you to do something.
The author has an opinion, but the action to take, if any, is up to you.

This book offers an interesting and entertaining look at the unintended impacts of efforts to improve society through various programs and changes. If you interested in historical aspects of such attempted change in modern society, this book is a must read for you.