Endogenous Ratcheting
Interests and Ideas in State-Centric Crisis Response
This article appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of The Independent Review.
This paper uses the systems-oriented approach of economist Richard Wagner to build upon Robert Higgs’s contributions to illustrate how crises are produced and, in turn, legitimize the ratcheting of larger governmental size and scope over the long run. Key to this micro-foundational contribution toward ratchet effect theorizing is the opportunistic blending of interest-oriented activity and ideational-moral argumentation by creative actors to entrench crisis period rents and privileges.
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