The Big Government We Love to Hate; Exploring the Roots of Political Malaise

For thousands of years, peoples of the world have assumed that government is society s natural problem-solving agency. No matter how many times it disappoints, the public keeps coming back for more. In this exciting new book, political scientist James Payne details the power of this unexamined cultural presumption, showing how it gives rise to fallacies and dysfunctions across the political landscape. A ray of hope is the recent emergence of thinkers and activists who have transcended this traditional faith, the libertarians, who advocate neighborly principles of social action.

Political scientist James Payne has spent a lifetime carrying out direct research, beginning in 1961 when, as an undergraduate at Oberlin College, he made a year-long visit to Peru and travelled around the country to interview labor leaders for his book, published by Yale University Press, Labor and Politics in Peru. After 20 years as an academic political scientist at Yale, Wesleyan, Johns Hopkins, and Texas A&M he left his tenured full professorship to become an independent scholar. In 1986-1996, he researched the U. S. budgetary process, interviewing dozens of officials and congressmen, and participating in five congressional hearings. This research supported two books, The Culture of Spending (1991) and Costly Returns (1994). Later, he travelled across the U. S. examining public and private welfare programs for his book Overcoming Welfare (1998). His other works include A History of Force (2004), Six Political Illusions (2010), and the political fables Take Me to Your Government (2013). He makes his home in Sandpoint, Idaho.