Arnold Kling on the growth in government

by on March 30, 2007 at 12:12 pm in History | Permalink

1.  Institutions are affected by technology perhaps even more than by ideology.

2. In 1800, the United States was a large country relative to the
transportation and communication technologies that were available at
that time.  Further, it was very divided, both politically and
economically, over slavery.  Thus, one does not see major national
institutions of any sort, private or public.

3. The rise of powerful industrial corporations and the rise of a
large public sector in democracies over the past 150 years are results
of changes in technology.  Economies of scale have increased, because
transportation costs have fallen and communication is faster and
cheaper.

I agree with #1-3.  Here is more.  I would add that American government grew big as soon as it had the technological ability to do so; that suggests to me that the latent demand for big government, for better or worse, was already in place.  I await Brad DeLong’s book-length treatment of this topic.

Robert March 30, 2007 at 1:41 pm

A discussion about growth in government and not a single comment about wars? Technology may provide the tools, but something needs to provide the incentive for people to actually get moving and become efficient.
If anything, we’re going to see even more government in our personal lives. The only thing that may change for “the better” is the percentage of GDP that goes to government.

cb March 30, 2007 at 3:02 pm

On a micro level, post-Watergate there was a shift of power from the executive branch to the legislative branch, and about the same time the sub-committee bill of rights transferred power from the committee chairman. It was at this time that domestic federal spending began to increase markedly as a share of the economy, and has stayed at higher levels since.

John Kunze March 30, 2007 at 5:29 pm

“I would add that American government grew big as soon as it had the technological ability to do so”

This sounds like a mono-causal claim of inevitability, that we could only fight by dynamiting rail lines, cutting phone wires, and blowing up computers.

Certainly technology helps the state to rule a large empire in a more detailed way, but is it isn’t the main reason goverment grows. Besides the wars which were mentioned, U.S. government growth is the result of the Fed bungling the Great Depression (and FDR’s idology-fueled response), as well as the Cold War, drug prohibition that destroyed urban environments, rent-seeking by industry and labor, and a host of other things.

Huggy March 30, 2007 at 8:55 pm

Cheap transportation makes big government possible. Otherwise necessary mechanisms won’t come into being. The proof of this is left as an exercise for the reader. [smile] No cheap worldwide transportation network equals no world government. All the socialist should be working to give away gas.

Daniel Klein March 30, 2007 at 10:29 pm

It was not so much that technology enabled government administration, but that technology enabled a national “we.” Photographic journalism, instant nationwide communications, radio broadcasts, and the like vivified the atavisms of which Hayek spoke, giving new found cultural appeal and power to statism. Technology enabled the arousal of the people’s romance, the tribe, social-justice sentiments, and the like.

But another key factor, rising at the same time, is democracy. Without democratic superstitions, the true nature of government is especially hard not to see.

Mark March 31, 2007 at 10:45 am

It’s easy to point to technology changes that came before institutional changes and conclude the former were the necessary and sufficient causes for the latter, but this sounds like a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy to me. I’d say the expansion of the US federal government (at the expense of state governments) came about because the seventeenth amendment in 1913 removed the check that state governments had had on federal growth.

Until then, the Senators from each state were appointed by the state government rather than elected by the people. The Senate in turn ratified the federal judges, who accordingly kept the federal government’s rights over the states limited. By the time the Depression started, the federal bench was composed of judges confirmed mainly by Senators whose power would be enhanced not by stronger state governments, but by a stronger federal government. Hence, the federal government started to balloon, and has continued on that course to this day.

I don’t think 20th century technology was either necessary or sufficient for federal expansion. There have been empires thousands of miles in reach long before instant communication was possible. And if the US had continued electing Senators as before, I think we would to this day be governed much more at the state level and less at the federal level.

Steve August 8, 2007 at 7:09 am

The Senate in turn ratified the federal judges, who accordingly kept the federal government’s rights over the states limited. By the time the Depression started, the federal bench was composed of judges confirmed mainly by Senators whose power would be enhanced not by stronger state governments

SURE August 8, 2007 at 7:25 am
Todd September 27, 2007 at 11:37 pm

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