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Re:US is an oligarchy, not a democracy (2014) by dmix on Thursday January 10, 2019 @03:28PM (#18877742)
People always pretend the US government size is small and tiny countries in Scandinavia have giant ones. Yet few countries have the massive number of agencies and law the US does. The size of population certainly plays a role in this but ultimately it affects the average person operating in such a society.

I'm not talking about taxation. I'm talking about the size of the administrative state, ie. the amount of intervention the government engages in in the economy and socially.

Re:US is an oligarchy, not a democracy (2014) by tanderson92 on Thursday January 10, 2019 @03:33PM (#18877805)
The size of the administrative state may not be a relevant metric in evaluating the extent of actions taken to equalize voice in decision making/policy based on economic power, or to limit economic inequality more generally. (In fact, one view of the large administrative state is that it's a moat designed precisely to the advantage of established actors.)
Re:US is an oligarchy, not a democracy (2014) by derEitel on Friday January 11, 2019 @03:36AM (#18881839)
Does it still have a "massive number of agencies" compared to the EU and all its member states? I don't think so.
Re:US is an oligarchy, not a democracy (2014) by rafiki6 on Thursday January 10, 2019 @05:33PM (#18879020)
The US is 30 times larger than the largest Scandinavian country. It stands to reason that the US would have a government proportionally as large unless they somehow found a way to be more efficient. I can guarantee you they have not.