“The case for limited government does not rest on the assumption that we are all perfectly rational and benign. It rests on the assumption that whatever ‘messy, complicated human frailties’ we may have as individuals are amplified, not neutralised, by politics and political decisionmaking” says Dr Kristian Niemietz, Head of Political Economy at the Institute of Economic Affairs.

Writing for CapX, Kristian argues that far from showing a need for larger government, the facts that people may have made “rash, impulsive, ill-judged and ill-informed decisions” during the coronavirus crisis needs to be counterbalanced against the fact that we are often “individually rational, but politically irrational.”

Read the full piece here.