Government Failure: The Role of Congress
In a romantic view of democracy, legislators act with the interests of the general public in mind. They grapple with policy issues, work toward a broad consensus, and pass legislation that has strong support. They frequently reevaluate existing programs and prune the low-value and harmful ones. They put citizens first and limit their actions to those allowable under the U.S. Constitution.
Unfortunately, that is not how Congress works.
In the real world, Congress often enacts ill-conceived laws that do not have broad public support.
A new DownsizingGovernment.org paper, “Congressional Incentives and Government Failure,” looks at how Congress operates. It examines the incentives that induce members to support policies counter to the general public interest, and concludes that political incentives induce members of Congress to take short-sighted and parochial actions that undermine the overall prosperity of the nation.
