Beyond Politics: The Roots of Government Failure

Traditional public policy and welfare economics have held that “market failures”—the presumed inability of a free market to deliver certain goods and services deemed to be in the public interest—are common and require government intervention to protect the public good. But is this actually the case?

Beyond Politics carefully scrutinizes this view through the modern theory of public choice and systematically explains how government is producing a scandal of political myopia, economic stagnation, and public distrust. The book traces the anatomy of “government failure” and a pathology of political institutions. Social welfare, consumer protection, education, trade, the environment, and crime are some of the topics the book examines.

Originally published in 1995, Beyond Politics has been updated to provide readers with insights about the crash of 2008, America’s fiscal crisis, and other realities of twenty-first century political economy. Offering a powerful perspective on market processes, property rights, politics, and government bureaucracy, this newly revised and updated edition is a lucid and comprehensive examination of the foundations of a free and humane society.

Randy T. Simmons is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute; Professor of Economics and Director of the Center on Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University's Jon M. Huntsman School of Business; Co-Founder, President and Director of Research of Strata; Senior Fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center; and former Mayor of Providence, Utah. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Oregon, and he is a member of the Board of Directors of the Utah League of Cities and Towns and a Member of the Utah Governor's Privatization Commission.

Gordon Tullock (1922–2014) was a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and University Professor of Law and Economics and Distinguished Research Fellow at George Mason University, holding a joint teaching position in the Department of Economics and the School of Law. Professor Tullock received a J.D. from the University of Chicago in 1947. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Chicago in 1992.