rules of the game................

 

     Quite a mixed bag, this government business.  The fate of the human condition depends on how ordinary people respond to the rules of the game.  And the rules of the game, in turn, depend largely on how governments respond to ideas circulating in society.  The process of political rules adapting to a changing world—what we call political change—creates new incentives that generate outcomes that we hope will improve the human condition and yet sometimes make it worse.  Yet, for all its importance, political change doesn't easily surmount status quo forces.

-Leighton and Lopez, Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers: The Economic Engine of Political Change