In turn, there is less reliance on progressive and higher taxes, on extensive social programs, on public enterprises, and on bureaucratic regulation of the behavior of workers and enterprises. Deficit reduction by spending restraint dominates fiscal policy debates. Our traditional docility toward rising taxes seems to have waned. The pace of privatization is still lively. Government bailout of business has lost its appeal.
Public opinion seems to be solidly behind reforms of unemployment insurance and welfare.
Nationalism as a Rationale for Decentralization Buchanan deplores the fact that Europeans, the British in particular, readily accept being coerced, provided the coercion originates from their own national government. That suggests that one should take a more philosophical approach to the question of nationalism as a rationale for decentralization. The public choice tradition has taught us to give little weight to how people rationalize their political and constitutional position. What matters more is that real forces and incentives work in the desired direction. Whether in Europe or in national federations, people can hardly conceive of their elected national government as not striving for the common good.