Dennis Kucinich Places Close Third in Cleveland Mayor Primary
Wednesday September 15, 2021
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In my work, the ratchet effect describes the characteristic way in which government under modern ideological conditions grows during a perceived national emergency. The government's size, scope, and power grow abruptly as the government acts to "do something" to allay the threat. Then, as the threat is eliminated or diminished, the government shrinks, but not all the way to the level it would have reached if the crisis had not occurred. Hence, each crisis shifts the government's growth trajectory to a higher level of size, scope, and power.Since early last year, we have witnessed many governments across the world demonstrate the ratchet effect in their use of stirred up coronavirus panic to support their undertaking massive expansions of government power at the expense of liberty. Yet, in many places where there has been a major increase in government power in the name of countering coronavirus there has yet to be the partial backtrack that Higgs suggests follows.