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The Future of Government: Mixed Economy or Minimal State?
Author(s) -
Quiggin John
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8500.00126
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , market economy , mixed economy , state (computer science) , economics , business , government regulation , contraction (grammar) , public policy , economy , economic policy , political science , economic growth , medicine , philosophy , linguistics , algorithm , computer science , law , china
After nearly a century of expansion, the role of government has contracted, at least in qualitative terms, over the past 20 years. The assumption that this is a natural and inevitable trend is mistaken. The success of the 'mixed economy' in the period from 1945 to 1970, and the limited benefits generated so far by reforms aimed at a contraction of the role of government, suggest that radical contraction of the role of government is unlikely to be beneficial. Some of the privatisations of the recent past will ultimately have to be reversed either through renationalisation or through the establishment of new public entrants to markets where older public enterprises have been sold off.