The Myth of the Welfare State

The Myth of the Welfare State is a basic and sweeping explanation of the rise and fall of great power, and of the profound impacts of these megastates on ordinary lives. Its central theme is the rise of bureaucratic collectivization in American society. Douglas's conviction is that statist bureaucracies produce stagnation, often exacerbated by inflation, which in turn produces the waning of state power. He believes that welfare states, in whatever form they appear, have failed in their purpose: they start out to correct the historical grievances of the laissez-faire states, only to increase the problems they seek to correct.