Why Nothing Works Quotes

“It’s a tragedy of the commons in reverse. Everyone is boxed into pursuing their own interests even as the proverbial asteroid speeds toward Earth.110”
― Marc J. Dunkelman, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

“But if progressives might once have had faith that government officials could be trusted to weigh the pros and cons, Jeffersonianism’s cultural aversion to power has denuded the system’s capacity to make tough calls. The movement had very purposefully granted various countervailing concerns with what amounted to vetoes. And while each veto may serve to protect a worthwhile interest, piled together they almost inevitably foment paralysis. Almost worse, the contemporary impulse to limit creativity has had the perverse effect of incentivizing projects less likely to take climate concern into account.”
― Marc J. Dunkelman, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

“A region as a whole may benefit from a new rail line—less pollution, fewer traffic jams, improved mobility, a surge in economic growth. But as is true in any tragedy of the commons, the individual neighborhoods and hamlets inconvenienced by a new line are almost sure to be worse off. No tax break, no promise of a new community center, no noise-controlling barrier is going to convince them that they should bear the burden of the broader region’s progress.”
― Marc J. Dunkelman, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

“Put more simply, if housing remains forever a symbol to ordinary citizens of why progressives can’t be trusted with power, the movement undermines its own viability. To make a serious claim on shaping the nation’s future—to offer a more compelling argument than the conservatives, populists, and demagogues—progressives need to make the public-sector work. And while acknowledging that perfect balance of Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian impulses will always prove elusive—that any public policy decision comes with trade-offs—progressivism’s best foot forward is to create a system that can be trusted to look at public concerns, weigh the choices, and come to a reasonable decision.”
― Marc J. Dunkelman, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

“No one should be denied an opportunity to voice their opinion on a question that affects them in general or in specific. But neither should voice give any figure the ability to hijack the decision-making process altogether.”
― Marc J. Dunkelman, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

“It was, and is, easy to argue that the downsides of any given decision could have been avoided if everyone affected had been given sufficient voice. But the reality was, and is, that progress involves ratifying trade-offs that distribute burdens across communities, fair and unfair. And so a progressive agenda centered in almost every context on providing ordinary citizens with new tools to thwart that centralized authority—opportunities to use their voice to lobby an official, to file a lawsuit, to register a complaint—too frequently fails to answer a crucial question: Who, after everyone has spoken, should make the final choice?”
― Marc J. Dunkelman, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

“By tipping the scales too far from Hamiltonianism, and too far toward Jeffersonianism, progressivism became, in short, a movement of do-gooders unable to do enough good. The diffusion of power hasn’t just undermined government—it has short-sheeted progressivism’s political appeal. And that is perhaps the most important lesson of the last several decades. Absent a progressivism that works, what reformers get is a progressivism left vulnerable to demagoguery. When government appears incompetent, voters turn to figures like Donald Trump.”
― Marc J. Dunkelman, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

“By curtailing opportunities for centralized power brokers to wreak havoc, reformers risk immobilizing the public sphere, rendering the big, hulking bureaucracies that were once the apple of progressivism’s eye incompetent.”
― Marc J. Dunkelman, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

“Here, taken together, was a Hamiltonian approach to solving the problem Jeffersonianism had tried to crack with an entirely different formula. Rather than chip away at the centralized institutions that were wreaking havoc on American life, the Hamiltonians would create new, publicly minded bureaucracies capable of keeping any rapacity in check. The problems of industrialization wouldn’t be solved with renewed competition, but rather with new, competent organization. The nation’s scientifically oriented middle class would swoop in to save the day.”
― Marc J. Dunkelman, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

“Put succinctly, it wasn’t just that reformers wanted to exchange the government’s incompetent hacks with educated experts—it’s that they wanted those experts to wield authority unencumbered by the political patrons who had undermined faith in public bureaucracy.”
― Marc J. Dunkelman, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

“Reformers tout an achievement, but then a housing plan is abandoned after local opposition, a high-speed rail line is shelved for exorbitant costs, or an offshore wind farm is blocked by local fishermen. Often enough, both sides in any given debate—those who want to change things, and those who fear that change will be destructive—are well-intentioned. But the movement’s inability to resolve its conflicting impulses has turned progressive policymaking into what drag racers call “warming the tires.” A driver steps on the brake and accelerator at the same time. The wheels spin. The track screeches. But the car remains in place.”
― Marc J. Dunkelman, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

“the silent majority didn’t want every authority figure slapped—the White House purposely baited progressives into taking positions out of step with the president’s mainstream appeal.”
― Marc J. Dunkelman, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back