The Public Interest

Why Government Grows (and Grows) in a Democracy

Allan H. Meltzer & Scott F. Richard

Summer 1978

DEMOCRATIC government continues in relatively few countries, and mainly in the market economies of the world. Yet even in the United States, with a long history of coexistence between market freedom and political freedom, state intervention in the market has grown, and the size of government has grown. Growth of government is not a simple transfer of power from one group to another. Well-functioning markets disperse power; growth of government concentrates power.

 

 

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