Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress―and How to Bring It Back Hardcover – February 18, 2025

I first heard this book mentioned by Pete Buttigieg, Ezra Klein, and Matthew Yglesias on various podcasts and shows, and figured it was worth a try. I tore through it in six days—admittedly, vacation helped. As a progressive reflecting on the current state of affairs, I wanted to hear from someone who shares progressive values about how we've gotten stuck and what we might do differently to finally achieve the nice things we dream about: abundant housing, green energy, high-speed rail, and more.Although the book explains "why nothing works," it also shows how, at one point, everything did. Dunkelman compellingly traces how major sectors in the U.S. were built through strategic public-private partnerships, diving deep into the politics, legislation, and judicial evolutions behind them. The book could almost have been titled "What Happened After The Power Broker"—it feels like a spiritual sequel.Dunkelman displays an impressive mastery of U.S. political history, moving fluidly from the Revolution to Teddy Roosevelt, from the Tennessee Valley Authority to the New Deal, and on through the reforms of the 1940s, public assistance policies, police reform, environmental policy, the airline industry, housing policy, the interstate highway system, and even the electrical grid. The breadth of this book left me proud of the countless entrepreneurs and public servants who skillfully balanced centralized authority with individual rights—until, as Dunkelman explains, corruption and self-interest often crept in.Throughout, Dunkelman balances a broad historical overview with vivid anecdotes. Although occasionally dry, his storytelling makes complex historical processes digestible, compelling, and fair. Familiar figures like Robert Moses and FDR frequently appear alongside lesser-known characters, each illustrating how personal ambitions and political battles shaped America's infrastructure.The book really gains momentum when Dunkelman explores modern examples of how interest groups and bureaucratic red tape have derailed urgently needed projects. The story of the blocked clean energy transmission line from Canada to Massachusetts is particularly infuriating, vividly demonstrating how good intentions can be strangled by narrow interests.Though Donald Trump isn't a central figure, his presence quietly underscores the narrative. Reading in 2025, I couldn't help but consider how his approach to governance both critiques the progressive-built systems and offers a chance to rethink and reshape our cities and states. Dunkelman pushes us to recognize that proving government can work effectively might be our most crucial task.The book left me grappling with big questions—a hallmark of any excellent read. For instance, if progressives become less cautious about power and embrace stronger authority capable of cutting through bureaucracy, how do we prevent these empowered institutions from becoming captured by the powerful at the expense of the environment and ordinary people? Are we inevitably doomed to a cycle where the little guy always shoulders the burden, regardless of who's in charge? Can we accept some degree of corruption or excess as the price of progress—and can we trust ourselves to manage it fairly?I enthusiastically recommend Why Nothing Works. It’s an insightful, enlightening journey through America’s past and present, provoking essential reflections about how we might finally make meaningful changes for our collective future.

Dunkelman delivers a very interesting account of the history of progressivism in the United States. He points out that the movement has always combined two opposed strands: Hamiltonianism and Jeffersonianism. The first seeks to pull power up to state and federal governments in order to accomplish big projects such as the federal highway system and the TVA but often neglects to consider the needs of local communities. The second tries to pull power down to the people, ensuring that they can prevent government overreach.Unfortunately, the latter strand has been too dominant the past 50 years and has prevented government from achieving progressivism's goals. While the left generally blames the right for opposing the progressive agenda, Democrats have prevented government from working and have given ammunition to Republicans from Reagan to Trump to claim that big government doesn't work. A good example is Dunkelman's account of the struggles faced by Massachusetts under a Republican governor to build a transmission line from Quebec to Massachusetts to replace fossil fuel sources of electricity with clean hydropower. Lawsuits and referenda in both New Hampshire and Maine have delayed the project for over 8 years. Most of the opposition came from environmental groups (with ironic financial support from the fossil fuel industry) even though they would be expected to support renewable energy; the problem is that these groups are unable to make hard choices between slowing climate change and preserving every single local nature preserve and every sub-species of rodent. Other examples include the challenges that prevent construction of high speed rail and housing.While Dunkelman presents lots of good content and analysis, I found that he jumped around chronologically too much, leading to excessive repetition. Additionally, I don't think his prescriptions suffice to solve the problem. He is right that we need to give people "a voice, but not a veto" so that experts appointed by governments can make and implement decisions after considering many viewpoints without being subject to endless lawsuits. I also like his idea of adding various specialized administrative judges to review the decisions made by the experts to ensure that all viewpoints actually were considered. However, it is unclear how we can avoid the expert agencies and administrative judges being "captured" by industries and failing to serve the needs of the people. This last issue is especially relevant under the second Trump administration which is appointing industry insiders to agencies like the EPA. What would prevent a similar President from appointing administrative judges who might disregard their legal mandate and only favor industry?

Dunkleman makes a strong case for fixing government by repairing our government systems. He is a progressive who believes in progressive causes such as repairing our climate and fixing healthcare: however, he believes progressives have lost the ability to get things done. He points to getting the balance between centralized power and government oversight is the key.

A good history lesson, and a good diagnosis of government gridlock, but after every chapter I kept asking, “What is the solution? How do we get out of this mess?” and the author offers no answers.

Well, worth reading

While I do not agree with the entirety of the analysis in this book, ultimately it raises important questions regarding the tradeoffs that exist in the policy process and the issues that can arise when yesterday's solutions become today's problems.There’s a balance between necessary regulations meant to keep the government’s worst excesses in check and too many regulation which stifle the ability of government to do its job. Reasonable people can disagree where this line falls; I’d imagine I’d be more wary of cutting regulations to make government work than the author would be, but it is a problem that states like California cannot build homes or high speed rail because they cannot get out of their own way.

This book is so important for understanding how we got to this moment in politics. Highly recommend!