As the botched rollout of the Healthcare.gov website reminded us, big government projects can be messy. Fairly or unfairly, recent events will serve as fodder for politicians who like to claim that government is not the solution to our problems and is more often the problem. And yet the government tends to get involved where real needs exist, usually due to market shortfalls. Lack of health insurance, unaffordable flood insurance, difficulties obtaining housing, lack of access to higher education, etc., are real problems, and American voters have repeatedly expressed their frustration over them and their support for candidates who offer solutions. Except … these needs run against a peculiar American ideological strain that rejects most (or even all) signs of federal power and equates even modest levels of taxation with tyranny or socialism. Thus has the American political system developed an unusual way of meeting citizens needs while attempting to hide the fact that it is doing so. This system has been dubbed the submerged state by political scientist Suzanne Mettler and, relatedly, the kludgeocracy by political scientist Steven Teles.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 12:31:38 +0000
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