Inside Job
How Government Insiders Subvert the Public Interest

Mark A. Zupan examines why, how, where, and when government insiders subvert the public interest, undermining democracies as well as autocracies.

Mark A. Zupan (Author)

9781107153738, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 March 2017

262 pages, 1 b/w illus. 2 tables
23.5 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'Zupan succeeds brilliantly in producing a self-contained book that lays out a coherent framework to address the critical issues related to the role of government insiders in the success or demise of political systems. This is an impressive book which tackles a number of important substantive topics about the relative desirability of alternative political institutions.' Antonio Merlo, George E. Peterkin Chair of Economics and Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Rice University, Texas

National decline is typically blamed on special interests from the demand side of politics corrupting a country's institutions. The usual demand-side suspects include crony capitalists, consumer activists, economic elites, and labor unions. Less attention is given to government insiders on the supply side of politics - rulers, elected officials, bureaucrats, and public employees. In autocracies and democracies, government insiders have the motive, means, and opportunity to co-opt political power for their benefit and at the expense of national well-being. Many storied empires have succumbed to such inside jobs. Today, they imperil countries as different as China and the United States. Democracy - government by the people - does not ensure government for the people. Understanding how government insiders use their power to subvert the public interest - and how these negative consequences can be mitigated - is the topic of this book by Mark A. Zupan.

Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Government for the people?
2. Why worry about government insiders and their profits?
3. How do government insiders profit at the public's expense?
4. What do government insiders stand to gain?
5. What factors curb hijacking by government insiders?
6. Why are government insiders so hard to control?
7. Where and when has the state been co-opted from within?
8. Government insiders: a day of reckoning for China?
9. Government insiders: a day of reckoning for the US?
10. How can we form a more perfect union?
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Economics [KC]