In this book Philip Howard takes an unflinching look at America’s legal and bureaucratic complex and points us to an uncomfortable truth: it is an ever-expanding, intrusive and increasingly dysfunctional burden on the people it is supposed to serve, and it is broken beyond repair. The real-life examples of regulatory unreason and excess contained in the book are dishearteningly familiar to anyone who has sought a building permit, tried to start or run a business, or attempted to sort their garbage in accordance with their town’s voluminous garbage-sorting instructions. Howard provides a well-researched and persuasive, if depressing, account of the impact our rules-obsessed institutions have on the nation’s progress and efficiency, affecting as they do things as crucial as our infrastructure, our schools and our will to make them better. The book’s headline assertion – that this labyrinth is impervious to reform under our current two-party system of government – is supported by the reform initiatives that have been advanced over the years, only to perish in the face of the vested and special interests that exert such power over our political parties and the government officials they produce.
The book would be less interesting if Howard’s proposed solution to this gridlock were deregulation. Instead, he suggests a kind of re-regulation, a system in which the dense volumes of (often outdated) rules that control regulator and regulated alike are replaced by regulatory objectives (clean drinking water; safe work places; orderly and effective schools). Reliance on regulatory principles leaves room for human judgment, flexibility and ingenuity in achieving them, assets we are badly in need of at the moment. Decision makers are judged under this proposed system by the results they achieve or fail to achieve, as well as by the officials who are tasked with overseeing them through a chain of command, leaving identifiable people, not rigid rules, to credit or blame.
The book’s diagnosis is hard to quibble with. At first blush, its call for the formation of a third political party that can tackle these needed reforms (set forth in some detail at the end of the book) seems harder to fathom. But as Howard observes, so was Donald Trump’s election to the Presidency, which Howard notes was animated by the same rejection of the status quo that is needed to effect real and lasting change in the way we are governed. The desire is there; whether we can remake government in the image of the humans it is intended to serve is a matter of will.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Customers who bought this item also bought
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
