Of the many issues in Jonathan Rauch's work Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working, the issue of what exactly is meant by "government's end" is particularly interesting. Rauch suggests that America's democracy has reached a stage where, due to the massive reproduction of interest groups, it can no longer move forward in its goals for government but rather has become entangled in an endless paper chase for the fulfillment of every imaginable desire of the people. Despite the doomsday sounds of his argument, Rauch's position is not unduly negative because directly following his accusations of stagnation are optimistic suggestions for the management of America's governmental sclerosis.
Rauch establishes nearly right away that the government is suffering from "demosclerosis," a term coined by himself to describe "government's progressive loss of the ability to adapt" (p. 125). He attributes this deterioration of capability to the proliferation of government interest groups, organizations that crusade for diverse causes and platforms. These groups are becoming so numerous that their presence is literally slowing down the effectiveness of the government to act in the interest of the people. Rauch is concerned that these groups may be hastening the "government's end," meaning the "steady-state condition" that has made the government into "a large, incoherent, often incomprehensible mass that is solicitous of its client but impervious to any broad coherent program of reform" (p. 18). These statements cause one to believe that Rauch can see no hope for the state of democracy that has evolved from our great republic. However, in spite of his overwhelming amounts of criticism of its condition, he perfunctorily produces several solutions he believes can revive our struggling government.
These observations are entirely reflective of Rauch's idea; in the same fashion, his suggestions for coping with demosclerosis highlight the fact that government is approaching its end.
