Is Bigger Government Better Government? Essay Example

It can be argued that bigger government is necessarily not a good government. The government is the critical institution of the modern world because its programs dictates the quality of individuals life. Despite the fact that government spending has increased globally, it can be argued that larger governments do not necessarily dictate the performance of the outcome. This therefore implies that there are some of the smaller governments that are performing excellently as compared to larger governments across the globe. The argument of this paper therefore is that the size of the government does not define its performance in any way (Feldstein 3).

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Large government is directly proportional to government spending which have a negative impact on the economic growth and hence do not result in a better performance in terms of societal growth. Large governments require increased spending, which negatively affects economic growth by transferring resources form production industry to be used by other sectors of the government. The government then utilizes the transferred additional resources less efficiently as expected (Feldstein 1). Additionally, large governments make it difficult for the country to implement the pro-growth policies, for instance the personal retirement accounts and tax reforms since this can be used by the critics of reforms to challenge the implementation of policies that can improve the economy.

However, it is argued that there is a positive correlation between the size of the government and the performance of the public sector in the United States of America. Most of the economists have come up with supporting evidence which indicates that the expansion in the size of the government leads to an improvement in social outcomes. They argue that at the same time the economic growth and the efficiency of the public sector is maximized by the growth in the size of the government. The available resources required to transform the public sector are directly correlated to the available resources in the country. Larger governments have larger resources that are needed to run the social amenities, hence improving the social outcomes of the people. Since the performance of the government is measured by the social status of the people, improved social outcomes will imply that the country is better performing than others and hence the proponent of this argue that a larger government is a good government.

Conversely, there seems to be a positive correlation between small governments and efficiency in the provision of public services which in turn leads to a better performance of the social outcome. A close comparison of the size of the public sector and performance indicators like life expectancy, economic growth, crime rates, infant mortality and educational attainment portrays a complex relationship (Feldstein 4). Although large governments have the ability to support government sectors, large spending stresses resources meant for public hence interfering with social outcomes. This is opposite in small governments where the majority of the resources is directed towards public amenities which help in improving the social life of people hence improved economic performance.

In conclusion, there are evidences that indicate the fundamental implications the size of the government to the economic growth of the country and social outcomes. Larger governments attract public resources to other sectors that do not encourage economic growth and hence affecting negatively the performance of social outcome. Despite the fact that larger governments have a lot of resources, economic growth is low because they spend more on sectors that do not improve the social outcome. Smaller governments concentrate most of its resources on transforming public amenities, hence improving the social outcomes. Following the evidence presented in the paper, it can argued that larger governments are not necessarily good governments.

Works Cited

Feldstein, Martin. How big should government be?. No. w5868. National Bureau of Economic Research, 1996.