Government Failure in Canada, 2005 Report: A Review of the Auditor General's Reports, 1992-2005

This publication has been written to inform Canadians about the theories and insights of Public Choice Theory, to document government failure from the reports of the Auditor General, and, perhaps most importantly, to describe the mechanisms available to reduce government failure.The discussion of the limitations of government and subsequent government failures is wholly absent from debate in Canada where, unfortunately, we still assume that governments act benevolently and without institutional constraints. That this is not true is plain to see in the pages of the reports of the Auditor General of Canada, which provide concrete evidence of the existence, and the extent, of government failure in Canada. The Public Choice school of economics, which applies traditional economic methods and techniques to explain the actions and decisions made by those who operate in the political marketplace, has striven to explain government failure empirically. This publication has been written to inform Canadians about the theories and insights of Public Choice Theory, to document government failure from the reports of the Auditor General, and, perhaps most importantly, to describe the mechanisms available to reduce government failure.