The ghosts of government reform

The Clinton administration spent 8 years "Reinventing Government," but we still have the same problems. Can we learn how to solve them for good?

Nov 19 • 

David Dagan

20

2

Reform won’t stick without real goals

The mirror image of the "procedure fetish" is reform with no substantive end.

Nov 19 • 

Henry M. J. Tonks

2

To defeat the bureaucracy, embrace bureaucracy

Reinventing Government succeeded where it forced a change in practice; neither inspiration nor job cuts proved transformational.

Nov 19 • 

Kevin Hawickhorst

12

4

Democrats’ Wile E. Coyote Problem

For two decades, Democrats thought they could outrun the broken operating systems of government through managerial excellence. It didn’t work before…

Nov 19 • 

Gabe Menchaca

19

5

Recombining government: These are the questions bureaucratic reformers can't avoid

Every generation since Wilson has debated how bureaucracy can be effective and accountable. Neither DOGE nor Abundance have settled those questions.

Nov 19 • 

Casey Eilbert

15

5

From Gore to DOGE

The bipartisan history of failed workforce reform.

Nov 19 • 

Gabe Menchaca

14

5

October 2025

What happens when Chinese resolve meets American rent-seeking?

Reading "Abundance" and "Breakneck" side by side suggests that learning from one another is not enough.

Oct 14 • 

Dan Davies

65

14

September 2025

Why we're founding Students for Abundance

Policies that manufacture scarcity. Institutions that can't deliver. A culture of risk aversion. America's young adults must topple all three.

Sep 3 • 

Matthew Meyers

, 

Victoria Ren

, and 

Maxwell Stern

47

11

August 2025

How abundance can get serious about government failure

Without a clear diagnosis of the problem, recent entries in the abundance canon struggle to provide a cure that is clear, compelling, and politically…

Aug 25 • 

Matt Zwolinski

28

6

July 2025

California’s retort to Mancur Olson

How political ambition, social media, and smart dealmaking overturned the interest-group trough in a liberal bastion.

Jul 31 • 

Chris Elmendorf

26

6

Why healthcare should unite abundance and antitrust

Over the last few months, internecine battles between abundance and antitrust advocates have been fought across book reviews, podcasts, and social…

Jul 30 • 

Olivia Webb Kosloff

20

5

Lessons from the forgotten history of Democratic abundance

Moderates and leftists misunderstand the 1990s. That is stopping them from seeing their joint path forward.

Jul 28 • 

Henry M. J. Tonks

25

3