Crisis and leviathan

By Robert Higgs

Subjects: Welfare state, History, Ideology, Bureaucracy, HISTORY / United States / General, Political science, Administrative agencies, Politics and government, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Government / General, United states, politics and government, 20th century, United states, politics and government, 19th century

Description: "In Crisis and Leviathan, economist and historian Robert Higgs shows how Big Government emerged from responses to national emergencies that occurred as attitudes about the role of government were changing dramatically. In particular, governmental responses to the Great Depression, two World Wars, the Cold War, and various lesser "crises"(real or imagined) led to a host of new federal programs, activities, and functions that left legacies--including greater acceptance of bigger government--that endured long after each crisis passed. The result was not only a higher baseline for further growth, but also a government more intrusive in the lives of ordinary citizens and more resistant to meaningful reform"--