Michalyn's profile

293 ratings | 86 reviews
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Michalyn's bookshelves

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mystery (4)
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Michalyn is currently reading

	06/24 Michalyn is currently reading: Enrique's Journey (Paperback) by Sonia Nazario bookshelves: 2008, currently-reading	my rating:
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	05/17 Michalyn is currently reading: Argentina: An Economic Chronicle. How one of the richest countries in the world lost its wealth (Paperback) by Vito Tanzi bookshelves: currently-reading, non-fiction	my rating:
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	05/07 Michalyn is currently reading: Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (Hardcover) by Thomas E. Ricks bookshelves: currently-reading, non-fiction	my rating:
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Michalyn's recent updates (rss)

July 09

Michalyn gave

to:
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Paperback)
by John Berendt
bookshelves: fiction

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June 28

New comment on Diane's review of Mr. Timothy

Michalyn wrote: "That looks great! I'm going to add it to my wishlist. "

(see all 2 comments)

June 24

Michalyn is currently reading:
Enrique's Journey (Paperback)
by Sonia Nazario
bookshelves: 2008, currently-reading

my rating:

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May 28

Michalyn added:
Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-gazer: A Novel (P.S.)
by Sena Jeter Naslund

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May 17

Michalyn is currently reading:
Argentina: An Economic Chronicle. How one of the richest countries in the world lost its wealth (Paperback)
by Vito Tanzi
bookshelves: currently-reading, non-fiction

my rating:

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May 08

Michalyn marked as to-read:
The Ethnic Food Lover's Companion: A Sourcebook for Understanding the Cuisines of the World (Paperback)
by Eve Zibart
bookshelves: food_and_cooking, non-fiction, to-read

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Michalyn marked as to-read:
Calm Energy: How People Regulate Mood with Food and Exercise (Paperback)
by Robert E. Thayer
bookshelves: food_and_cooking, non-fiction, to-read

my rating:

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Michalyn gave

to:
Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working (Paperback)
by Jonathan Rauch
bookshelves: non-fiction

my rating:

recommended for: those interested in policy, political science, government

Michalyn said: "I read this book a year or two ago and have been meaning to give it a proper review. I finally got around to it.

Rauch’s basic argument in Government’s End can be summarized as follows: Special interest groups are bad. They are bad beca...more I read this book a year or two ago and have been meaning to give it a proper review. I finally got around to it.

Rauch’s basic argument in Government’s End can be summarized as follows: Special interest groups are bad. They are bad because they engage in lobbying (rent-seeking) which is economically wasteful and unproductive and they stymie government by preventing it from being flexible, from acting nimbly and decisively. He concludes that regardless of the motives of different groups, the end result of their actions is the same--an enfeebling of government.

As much as I agree that special interest groups are problematic I was just not convinced by Rauch's argument that they are all equally harmful.

Perhaps the problem is not the presence of special interest itself but the assumption that all special interest results in the same negative effect. If one believes, like Rauch that no motives serve a better public good than others, then this would be stymieing indeed for any government trying to act. In fact, it would be impossible to even know which groups to excise to remove the enfeebling, cancerous areas of government.

If we extend Rauch’s cancer metaphor, imagine a doctor faced with a patient who exhibits symptoms of cancer; however, the source of that cancer is undeterminable. That doctor can, like Rauch, decide that all tissues and organs are equally culpable in the malady and so, cutting out a liver, a heart, a hand, a foot, will have the same result as excising the cancer. The other option is to do nothing. Neither really addresses the issue that the cancer exists, or at least, that the patient is exhibiting symptoms which are cause for concern.

This points to the weakness of Rauch’s proposed solutions. If the problem with American government is not, for the most part, a system which necessitates that politicians have deep pockets in order to survive and the problem is not politicians having too long-tenures, nor is it a general decline in the quality of American leadership, from whence does the power of special-interest groups arise? How is it that they are able to “hold government hostage” so to speak and calcify the mechanisms of change? If this mysterious source of their power is not identified, why should anyone suppose that making government smaller will be the answer?

What this highlights is that special-interest groups in a democracy are not at all like barnacles on the bulwark of government, nor are they life-sucking parasites on the jugular of the host.

The first implies a kind of commensalism, with interest groups gaining benefit from latching on to government, while government is taxed, but is ultimately unharmed. The second implies that government would be healthy but for the presence of special interest groups. Yet, if special-interest groups are the American public itself then it is impossible for any democratic government to exist without its constituents. Such a government signifies nothing.

In the spectrum of special-interest groups there are certainly some frivolous hangers-on and some deadly parasites, but the relationship between government and special-interest groups is by and large a mutualistic one. Shaking off special-interest groups like a bracing dash of sea-water is not simply a question of revitalizing the body-politic but radically altering the body-politic itself--an option which is, in fact, not as moderate a solution as Rauch suggests.

The point of all this is not to deny that Americans now more than ever have a keen sense that something is not quite right in the relationship between the people and the government. However, isolating one aspect of government such as special-interest groups without systematically examining the interconnected historical, social, economic and institutional conditions acting to produce a phenomenon is a self-defeating exercise.

That is why, despite Rauch’s calls for change, all we are left with is the uneasy notion that government has not “ended” as he suggests but that the only way to revitalize it is either to do away with democratic government itself, or to wish for some violent social upheaval such as the kind Germany, South Korea and Japan experienced. Most people would find this an unacceptable option. So what are we left with? We can't quite put our finger on the problem but given the choices presented, we shrug and say “well, that's the way it is"--which in the end is what Rauch concludes himself....less "

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Michalyn marked as to-read:
The Russian Concubine (Paperback)
by Kate Furnivall
bookshelves: fiction, historical, to-read

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see all 309 of Michalyn's books »

Michalyn's favorite quotes

""Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." "
— William Butler Yeats

29 people liked it

"Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators."
— Abraham Lincoln

5 people liked it

"Thirty spokes
Share one hub.
Make the nothing therein appropriate, and you will have the use of the cart.
"
— Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching)

tags: beauty, inspirational

1 person liked it

"The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper."
— Eden Phillpotts

1 person liked it

"Dont't kill!...
The fly is asking you
To save his life
By rubbing his hands together"
— Issa Kobayashi

tags: fun, inspirational

1 person liked it

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Michalyn's groups (recent posts)

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die — 3104 members — last activity 1 minute ago
For those attempting the crazy feat of reading all 1001 books!

For discerning bibliophiles and readers who enjoy unforgettable classic literature, ...more

READING AS WRITERS — 341 members — last activity 5 hours, 37 min ago
Those lines that startle you, endings that follow you for days, maybe a style that disturbs you but you can't stop reading. Discuss it all here.

On Reading Graphic Novels — 455 members — last activity 19 hours, 14 min ago
Let's talk about the wide array of graphic novels and which ones you enjoy reading. Maybe you like reading memoirs in the graphic format like Brookly...more

Book Buying Addicts Anonymous — 1026 members — last activity 3 days ago, 05:40AM
For the booklover who reads four or five books at a time, buys just as many at a time and who changes books like he/she changes his/her clothing. If ...more

GoodReviews: The Official Book Review Contest — 215 members — last activity 8 days ago, 06:25PM
Help us find the best reviews on Goodreads! Nominate reviews here for our monthly review-writing contest! Winners will be announced each month in our ...more

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Michalyn's friend comments

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from Arghya

8 days ago, 05:17AM

Hi Michalyn, I am trying to write a graphic novel. I have uploaded few pages in the following link:
http://goswamiarghya.googlepag...

let me know your inputs?

Regards,
Arghya

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