Aleksa's Book Review: Unelected Power

We all learned about the 3 branches of government in civics class. For those of us of a weak memory such as myself, they are the judicature, executive and legislative branches of the state. But, as we all know, the state is an octopus and not three pillars holding up our fragile society. This book goes into the actual tentacles that make up most of the government, and why they exist.

The 4 chapters of the book explain, in order of appearance: how agencies independent of the political process may be used to perform goals that are too important to be subject to the winds of politics, establishing democratic "legitimacy" of the unelected civil service, establishing metrics and managing the newly developed state agencies, and finally explaining the central banking system in the US.

What you notice as you read the book is that the author supports the growth of unelected professional services, primarily citing economic reasons and the tired arguments you've heard hundreds of times, while dismissing Chicago and Austrian school economics. It's something I often see in books similar to this one - which is fine, but merely ignoring the arguments serves no-one.

Read this if you're interested in how the slippery slope of technocratic authoritarianism constricts the life out of a society, and what the pro-side arguments sound like.
6/10