A familiar rallying cry of the Right is a call for smaller government. This is seen as self-evident and a “good thing” in and of itself.
However, if we look at the most successful advanced economies in the world, we see that most have more government spending as a fraction of GDP than the US (data from “Pocket World in Figures, 2015 Edition, The Economist).
| GDP/head | Government Spending | |
| (US$ 2015) | % GDP (2013) | |
| Australia | 67440 | 35.4 |
| Canada | 51210 | 41.4 |
| Denmark | 53360 | 57.7 |
| France | 39770 | 57.0 |
| Germany | 42630 | 44.5 |
| Holland | 45990 | 49.2 |
| Japan | 46730 | 42.9 |
| Norway | 99640 | 44.8 |
| Sweden | 55040 | 53.0 |
| UK | 38920 | 47.2 |
| US | 51750 | 38.7 |
The country rated as the “happiest on Earth” is Denmark, which also has the largest state sector. So if SIZE of government is not the issue, what is?
It is the EFFICIENCY of Government. Having lived in the UK, Canada and The US, I can testify that the US has the worst bureaucracy of the three. When I spent two summers at Caltech while working on my Ph.D. I was amazed at how many Government offices I had to go to. In each case I was asked exactly the same questions. I am sure Americans experience this on a daily basis, and this leads to the call for smaller government. Canada has by far the most efficient bureaucracy, which I would attribute to the clear separation of powers of the federal, provincial and municipal governments, each of which guards its responsibilities jealously.
A clear demonstration of the inefficiency of the US government was provided during the Presidential election. 17 Government security agencies all concurred that Russia was behind the hacking of the DNC. Why does the US require 17 security agencies, all of whom do virtually the same work?
Of course, making the US Government more efficient will also decrease its size, but that is a side-effect, not the true aim of the exercise.