Government Executive
email Big Government Is Back. Is the Civil Service Ready?
The administration must seriously consider whether the civil service is equipped to effectively implement Biden’s vision. A new book offers guidance.
During my 40 plus years in Washington, I have seen the pendulum swing from “big government” to “small government” and back again many times. Big government in. Big government out. Privatization in. Privatization out. Contracting out in. Contracting out out.
With the progressive Biden presidency, an era of big government seems to be returning. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan has passed. A $2 trillion American Jobs Plan is now being negotiated on Capitol Hill. A $300 billion (or more) American Families Plan has been unveiled. In her new book,
In the Biden era, the Reaganite consensus is finally breaking down.
Illustration by Tim Lahan
In a 1981 speech to the boards of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, President Ronald Reagan expressed one of the central ideas of the coming era. “The societies which have achieved the most spectacular, broad-based economic progress … believe in the magic of the marketplace.” I have long thought that this and many other Reagan speeches were extraordinary examples of what Michael Sandel has called public philosophy an attempt “to bring moral and political philosophy to bear on contemporary public discourse.”
Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly Power From the Gilded Age to the Digital Age
The development of Covid-19 vaccines in less than a year was clearly a major achievement. But the rollout has been far from perfect. In the United States, Operation Warp Speed met its manufacturing targets but stumbled in coordinating initial shipments. The plan neither prioritised vaccine recipients according to need, nor did it go far enough to address racial inequality in the distribution. Clearly, creating safe and effective vaccines and creating equitable vaccination programmes are two different things. States’ Mission-oriented innovation agencies, especially the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), have proven to be critical in seeding the development of the cutting-edge mRNA vaccines. But is the technological mission of Warp Speed linked to the health mission of delivering a “People’s Vaccine”?