The Reasoning State

Develops a theory of the modern state based on trust, drawing on Law, History and Social Science.

Edward H. Stiglitz (Author)

9781108725392, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 March 2023

317 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.462 kg

'It is a rare book that changes how we understand institutions, but the Reasoning State does exactly that. Stiglitz makes an utterly convincing case that one of the central justifications of the administrative state is its long-overlooked capacity to provide credible and trustworthy decisions. In doing so, he helps reframe how we should think about bureaucracy and charts a course for revitalizing it in the future.' Wendy Wagner, Richard Dale Endowed Chair, University of Texas School of Law

Administrative bodies, not legislatures, are the primary lawmakers in our society. This book develops a theory to explain this fact based on the concept of trust. Drawing upon Law, History and Social Science, Edward H. Stiglitz argues that a fundamental problem of trust pervades representative institutions in complex societies. Due to information problems that inhere to complex societies, the public often questions whether the legislature is acting on their behalf—or is instead acting on the behalf of narrow, well-resourced concerns. Administrative bodies, as constrained by administrative law, promise procedural regularity and relief from aspects of these information problems. This book addresses fundamental questions of why our political system takes the form that it does, and why administrative bodies proliferated in the Progressive Era. Using novel experiments, it empirically supports this theory and demonstrates how this vision of the state clarifies prevailing legal and policy debates.

1. Introduction: The reasoning state
2. Reasoning and distrust: State architecture in complex societies
3. Instruments of credible reasoning: The role of administrative law
4. The reform era: Rise of the reasoning state
5. The reasoning constraint
6. Reasoning dividends
7. Diagnosing the administrative state
8. Lessons applied
Index.

Subject Areas: Local government law [LNDU], Judicial review [LNDM], Legal history [LAZ], Political science & theory [JPA]