Glazer, Amihai; Rothenberg, Lawrence S.

Why Government Succeeds - And Why it Fails

Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Public Policy-Limits and Possibilities 1(19) How Economics Interacts with Politics 3(1) Structure of Analysis 4(1) Conceptual Apparatus: Economic Constraints 5(13) What Makes Problems Soluble? 18(2) 1 Macroeconomics: Can Government Control the Economy? 20(28) Managing the Economy: Partisan Incentives and Political Cycles 21(4) Monetary Policy and Rational Expectations 25(8) Fiscal Policy-Is It Just Crowding Out? 33(2) Exhortation: Persuasion and the Art of Equilibrium Selection 35(7) Spending, Taxes, and Expectations: Budget Deficits as Policy Instruments 42(5) Can Government Control the Economy? 47(1) 2 Redistribution: A Success Story? 48(24) Economic Constraints and Redistribution 50(2) Uncertainty and Redistribution: Data 52(5) Government Commitment to Future Redistribution 57(1) Implications for Redistribution 58(1) Effectiveness of Redistributive Policy 59(9) Why Not Taxes? 68(3) Conclusions: Redistributive Possibilities 71(1) 3 When Can Government Regulate? 72(24) The Scope of Regulation 73(2) Regulating Firms: Possibilities and Pitfalls 75(14) Regulating Consumer Behavior 89(5) Conditions for Regulatory Success 94(2) 4 Producing Goods and Services: Getting the Right Mix 96(22) What Is Production? 98(2) Crowding Out Private Provision 100(6) Credibility as an Obstacle to Inducing Production 106(3) Credibility as an Obstacle to Restricting Production 109(7) Production Is Difficult 116(2) 5 Economic Constraints and Political Institutions 118(21) Divided Government and the Politics of Gridlock 119(6) Federalism and the Devolution of Authority 125(6) Political and Policy Reform 131(5) What Do Politicians Know? 136(1) Institutional Design and Policy Effectiveness 137(2) 6 Final Thoughts 139(10) What Can Government Do? Five Lessons 141(4) Conclusions: The Burden of Government 145(4) Notes 149(26) References 175(22) Index 197