Oh it's certainly a good question -- How much should governments influence norms? -- and raised by one of the most single-minded bloggers. And it just happens to be one the central questions of political science and practical politics for the last several hundred years i.e. it's not a new question. So why does this question come up (it is after all a legitimate question) sneering & mocking (that's how it seemed to me) in reference to an article on (I gather) a liberal's leadership of a South American city? Why not with reference to an article about preventing abortion or marijuana use or government programs which encourage sprawl or government involvement in "marriage?" The degree to which government should intervene in our lives is a fair one; why bring it up with reference to a liberal Mayor?
But go read the whole story Academic turns city into a social experiment. Certainly this Mayor's city -- Bogota, Colombia -- is in dire need. So I thought Tyler Cowen's presentation rather peculiar and seemingly misdirected when the Mayor is trying to change what sounds like an urban hell-hole. The question first of all might be "Does it work?" and then, perhaps "Is it a good model? Should it be repeated elsewhere?" I have no answer on either count.
I thought the salient characteristic of that mayor was that he was a /character/ -- somebody with a lot of goofy, creative, interesting ideas -- more than that he was a /liberal/. And the context didn't seem sneering or mocking to me.
I found the article fascinating - the town is lucky to have this guy as a mayor, but reforms that work /for him/ probably aren't generalizable to other mayors in other towns.
Posted by: Glen Raphael | Dec 28, 2004 at 11:14 AM
Joel Spolsky's cooking metaphor is relevant. This mayor is an expert chef, improvising creative solutions to the daily problems that present themselves. Most local governments have to be run more like a McDonalds outlet, because they don't have the same degree of culinary talent at the helm.
Posted by: Glen Raphael | Dec 28, 2004 at 11:23 AM
I can think of two other effective mayors with similar styles off the top of my head, except that I can't remember their actual names: the man who pushed for buses in Curitiba, and the "expose yourself to art" fellow in Portland, OR.
Posted by: clew | Dec 30, 2004 at 04:09 PM