I am surprised that YOU are surprised by the former USSR's failure in the
environmentr, etc. Perhaps this comes from having an economist's perception
of the world. My social science training was in political science, so it
seems quite natural to me. The USSR did badly in the environmental area
beacuse it lacked any democracy. People whose communities were being poisoned
could not effectively organize for reforms. Moreover, political
decisionmaking was very centralizeded, so that the real decisionmakers in
Moscow ere not being harmed themselves by environmental disaster in
Magnetigorsk or whereever. Finally, the closed society meant that the
information was not there to embarass the authorities when conditions became
bad.
In the US, regulation was more effective because, imperfect as US democracy
is, people could organize more or less effectively, pressure Congress, harass
the federal buraeucracy, get information from the news and get it out, and
there awes some accountability in Congressa nd in the state legislatures to
people on the ground. The Clean Air and Water Acts, etc. are great victories.
I will add that as far as I know, the better environmental situation here is
largely due to legislation and reguiation. The unfettered market does just
what you think it would. Externalize, externalize, that is Mosesa nd the
Prophets.
--jks
In a message dated 00-02-13 10:58:26 EST, you write:
<< It is odd, and I do not understand, just why it was that
really-existing-socialism was so *lousy* at those parts of economic
activity where externalities are rampant and decentralized atomistic
decision making works worst.
In technological development and in pollution control all of our--at
least my--theories predict that a centralized bureaucracy should do a
better job than a market in which the key outputs--low pollution, big
externalities from other people's innovations--aren't priced. Yet the
really-existing-socialist economies fell down most not at the
deadweight-loss-triangle-reducing activities of matching marginal
private cost to marginal private demand, but in these two essentially
collective aspects of economic life.
Makes me think we need much better theories of government failure
than we have...
>>
