Why government institutions fail to deliver on their promises - Book Report/Review Example

Reasons for government failure in delivering their promises According to public choice economists such as James Buchanan, William Niskanen, Mancur Olson and Gordon Tullock, government institutions have failed to deliver their promises to the public. For example, the government ends up making problems worse despite having good and beneficial intentions and extravagant use of taxpayers’ resources. Veronique De Rugy (2013) highlights various reasons why the government fails to deliver effectively to the public and consider the public interest.

First, there are politics without romance within the government. This gets clearly pointed out by a number of public choice economists who believe that like people interacting in the marketplace. Government officials have lack self-interest drive in delivering services to the public. For instance, Jane S. Shaw stated that, despite people having some concern for others in the political marketplace, their main motive is always the self-interest. Self-interest makes the decisions made, by the government officials, to be ineffective in delivering service to public and solving problems existing problems.

Secondly, there are weak incentives for proper management in government. For instance, lawmakers make decisions that spend other people’s resources rather than their own resources although they are expected to consider the public interest. Therefore, the government fails in delivering services efficiently despite spending taxpayers’ resources. This occurs because individuals like voters have limited or no incentives for adequate monitoring of actions and decision taken by the government. Unlike in the public sector, consumers in the private sector have high incentives upon the products they purchase hence they can easily monitor the producer’s outcomes.

There unhealthy relations between government and interest groups in the public sector. According to economists like Gordon Tullock and Mancur Olson, government agents benefit more by acting on behalf of interests of special groups of people such sugar producers. This action makes the government fail to deliver efficiently to the public since they consider the interest some prominent and wealthy people instead of the public in general.Lastly, government failure is as a result of regulatory capture.

According to George Stigler, the electorate and interest groups exact pressure on the regulatory agencies within the government hence forcing the government to act on their interests accordingly. For instance, interest groups have power over regulations since they are influential and well-organized.Work citedVeronique De Rugy. “Why Government institutions fail to deliver on their promise: The public choice explanation”. Mercatus Center, George Mason University. 1002739­­_1-4_why_government_institutions_fail_to_deliver_on_their_promises.pdf (2013)