The Myth of the Welfare StateRoutledge, 2017 M09 29 - 514 pages The Myth of the Welfare Stale is a basic and sweeping explanation of the rise and fall of great powers, and of the profound impacts of these megastates on ordinary lives. Its central theme is the rise of bureaucratic collectivization in American society. It is Douglas's conviction, which he supports with a wealth of detail, that statist bureaucracies produce siagnation, often exacerbated by inflation, which in turn produces the waning of state power.Douglas has his own set of ""isms"" that require concerted attention: mass mediated rationalism, scientism, technologism, credentialism, and expertism. People who make policies have little, if any, awareness of the actual way social processes evolve: agricultural policy is set by people who know little of farming, arid manufacturing policy is set by people who have never set foot on a factory floor. In light of this ""soaring average ignorance,"" it is little wonder that policy-making has Alice-in-Wonderland characteristics and effects.Douglas sees the notion of a welfare state as a contradiction in terms; its widespread insinuation into the culture is made possible by its weak mythological form and benign-sounding characteristics. In fact, welfare states in whatever form they appear have failed in their purpose: to redistribute income or increase real wealth. The megastates are the source of social instability and economic downturn. They grow like a tidal drift. They start out to correct the historical grievances of the laissez-faire states, only to increase the problems they seek to correct. In this, the welfare state is a weakened form of the totalitarian state, producing similarly unhappy results.Professor Douglas has produced a work of ""anti-policy"" - arguing that freedom leavened by an ordinary sense of self-interest and social concern can overcome the shortfalls of the megastates and their myth-making, self-serving, propensities. |
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Contents
Acknowledgments | |
The American Megastate | |
The Essential Roots of Welfare Statism | |
The Ancient Dawn of Welfare Statism | |
The Drift into the Modernist Megastates | |
The Power of Political Myths | |
The Explosion of Modernist Millennialism | |
Rationalism and Scientism versus Human Nature | |
Central Planning versus Individual Planning | |
The Informational Pathologies Inherent in Bureaucracy | |
Freedom Works | |
The Ancient Model of Tyranny | |
Millennialism | |
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Common terms and phrases
absolute absolutist agitprop Albert Speer American ancient argued basic become believe bureaucratic catastrophic central planning century Christian Church civilization classical liberal collectivism common welfare communist conflicts creative crucial cultural degree democracy democratic dominance economists effects emanationism emotions empire especially evil extreme fact factors federal forms Friedrich Hayek goals growing growth Hitler human nature ideas immense imperial important increase individual inflation inherent inspired intellectuals Keynesian long run major Marxist mass mass media massive megastates megastatism mercantilist millennialism Milton Friedman modem modernist welfare monomyth moral mythical Natural Liberty obvious official passions Peisistratus Pitirim Sorokin policies political politicians problems produce programs ratchet-up rational rationalistic reality reason reciprocal altruism regime revolution rulers rules scientism secular soaring social scientists socialist society statist powers successful symbols theorists theory totalitarian uncertainty University Press vast vastly complex wealth welfare statism Western York