An illness is afflicting societies in both Europe and North America: sophisticated state failure. It fuels the Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen insurgencies and endangers the ability of advanced societies to secure a bright future for their citizens. Sophisticated state failure is a cancer eating away at societies in the west and undermining the liberal world order that, up to now, they have upheld.
Yet by and large, everything works as it should in the mature democracies of the developed world. Elections are fair and free. The courts work, and so do the tax authorities. The police can mostly be trusted, corruption is comparatively low and, overall, the institutions of public administration function as they should. In other words, none of the classic elements of state failure are present. Yet nothing gets done.
For roughly 30 years, since Margaret Thatcher performed drastic surgery on an ailing British economy, the western world has done piecemeal reform at best. Politicians have promised change, of course — reform of pensions, labour markets, the tax system and education. They have promised smaller states and less bureaucracy.