Evolution of Policy
Public policies in operation at any time are not the result of a single
master plan that specifies precisely where and how the public sector will
seek to complement or interfere with the workings of the market
mechanism. Rather, as individual problems arise, governments attempt to
meet them by passing appropriate legislation to deal with the problem.
These laws stay on the books, and some become obsolete and
unenforceable. This pattern is generally true of systems of law.
Many anomalies exist in our economic policies; for example, laws
designed to support the incomes of small farmers have created some
agricultural millionaires, and commissions created to ensure competition
between firms often end up creating and protecting monopolies. Neither
individual policies nor whole programs are above criticism.
In a society that elects its policymakers at regular intervals, however, the
majority view on the amount of government intervention that is desirable
will have some considerable influence on the amount of intervention that
actually occurs. Fundamentally, a free-market system is retained because
it is valued for its lack of coercion and its ability to do much of the
allocating of society’s resources better than any known alternative. But we
are not mesmerized by it; we feel free to intervene in pursuit of a better
world in which to live. We also recognize, however, that sometimes