Governments everywhere are undergoing a quiet and profound revolution:
they're getting simpler, more cost-effective, and focused on improved
outcomes not politics. For four years one of the leading lights of that
revolution, Cass Sunstein, as President Obama's "Regulatory Czar,"
oversaw the brilliant and successful effort to give every American
better government. In "a remarkably fun, engaging read" (Fortune.com),
he explains how, why, and what should come next.For Americans, the
future of government arrived in 2009. Government became simpler, it
became smarter. It worked better. Cass Sunstein, America's "regulatory
czar" under President Barack Obama, was at the center of it all. Drawing
on state-of-the-art work in behavioral psychology and economics,
Sunstein helped save the country more than $91 billion and an unknown
number of lives. This was accomplished through the extraordinary power
of nudges--seemingly modest policies that preserve freedom of choice,
better lives, and fundamentally improve government. In combination with
cost-benefit analysis, nudges are already saving money, saving lives,
and improving, by simplifying, government. In Simpler, Sunstein speaks
for the first time about what he encountered and accomplished in the
Obama Administration and what the lessons are for everyone going
forward. We don't need big government or small government; we need
better government. Simpler is a "lucid, engaging treatment of behavioral
economics that sees a role for the state in nudging humans towards
rationality and responsibility. The result is a forthright, compelling
vision of technocratic government that's both efficient and humane"
(Publishers Weekly, starred review). And it just may be "the most
important book to come out of President Obama's first term" (Walter
Isaacson).
