A provocative exploration of the forces that keep us from getting things done, and how we can restore confidence in government “Dunkelman summarizes the history perfectly.” —David Brooks,  The New York Times Named a Best Book of the Year by  Financial Times  •  The Economist America was once a country that did big things. But today, even while facing a host of pressing challenges—a housing shortage, a climate crisis, dilapidated infrastructure—we feel stuck. As Marc J. Dunkelman reveals, America is the victim of a vetocracy that allows nearly anyone to stifle progress. While conservatives deserve some blame, progressives have overlooked an unlikely culprit: their own fears of “The Establishment.” A half century ago, reformers began to put speaking truth to power ahead of exercising that power for good. Now, the ensuing gridlock has pummeled faith in public institutions of all sorts and opened the door for MAGA-style populism.  Why Nothing Works  uncovers the roots of this predicament, and boldly shows how progressives can once again build a better future for all. “Somewhere around the late ’60s the culture shifted in a decentralizing, Jeffersonian direction. A new generation of conservatives and progressives emerged who were suspicious of centralized authority and instinctively against the establishment, and who railed against 'the system'...Dunkelman summarizes the history perfectly.”― David Brooks, New York Times “[Dunkelman] deftly maps how anti-poverty and then environmental policy were designed to empower local communities to resist outside forces, putting liberalism at the service of stymieing grand plans. (He also castigates Robert Caro’s classic, critical book on Robert Moses for giving a generation of readers the misapprehension that aggressive building was a political vice rather than a virtue.) Why Nothing Works is blunt and exhortative…but Dunkelman is making a subtle point about the interplay between cultural emotion and social design.”― New Yorker “Mr. Dunkelman’s book provides a strong case for the pitfalls of excessive procedure.”― Wall Street Journal “Provocative reading for anyone with a stake in public works writ large.”― Kirkus “[ Why Nothing Works ] offers an astute analysis of how the US — the world’s largest economy — has come to face chronic infrastructure problems and housing shortages… This is an insightful and interesting take on the discourses that can straitjacket public authorities, and sow mistrust in democratic institutions.”― Financial Times “A detailed and thoughtful account of the policy problems our governments are embarrassingly unable to deal with.”― Washington Monthly “Dunkelman’s history of progressivism is well written and impressive.”― Discourse Magazine “Biting critiques of the red-tape state.”― Wall Street Journal "Who Read What in 2025" “Revelatory. I've been thinking about these issues for decades but found this book gave me an entirely new perspective that linked domains as disparate as welfare reform, antitrust, and infrastructure permitting.”― Jason Furman, on X.com “Why America can’t build is the central economic and political question of our time. In Why Nothing Works Marc Dunkelman asks progressives to reflect on how their own ideas have stymied the nation’s ability to address the housing and climate crises and slashed national ambition in public works projects. A fantastic thinker, Dunkelman has written an essential book for anyone seeking to understand how Americans have lost faith in democratic institutions that over-promise and under-deliver.”― Jerusalem Demsas, The Atlantic “ Why Nothing Works is the best book to date on the biggest political issue that nobody is talking about, but everyone feels—a palpable and basically accurate sense that American society has lost the capacity to plan and execute large projects in the physical world. How can it be that the richest country on earth and the home to so many globe-straddling companies is saddled with second-rate infrastructure and endemic housing shortages?”― Matthew Yglesias “America is living the truth of the old saying: Any old jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one. Today, it feels like anyone can stop progress, but nobody’s capable of starting it. I got into politics because when I was a kid, government delivered big things for my little corner of Louisiana—roads, and canals, and electricity. If you want to know why that happened back then, why it’s not happening now, and how we can start doing and building big things again, then this is the book for you.”― James Carville “Brilliant.”― Francis Fukuyama “A great book.”― Tyler Cowen “Anyone who has been frustrated with the inefficiency of government must read this book. Dunkelman takes us on a sweeping investigation of how, over the course of the twentieth century, the public sector has been increasingly paralyzed from exercising authority, demonstrating convincingly that the Progr