Milton Friedman on Politics, voting, and legislators

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1. President Reagan’s experience conforms to a political generalization that has repeatedly proved valid: a new administration has some six to nine months in which to achieve major changes; if it does not seize the opportunity to act decisively during that period, it will not have another such opportunity. Further changes come slowly or not at all, and counterattacks develop against the initial changes. … This generalization has a corollary: a candidate for head of state who hopes to make a real difference has to do more than get elected; he or she must have a detailed program of action well worked out before the election.

2. If the early successes of a new administration reflect a basic change in public opinion, the apparent lack of further progress after the first six to nine months will be deceptive. The early actions will continue to have their effects after they have disappeared from the front pages. The altered political atmosphere will lead the defeated opposition to modify its political position. Even if the opposition succeeds in returning to power, it will not pursue the same course that it pursued before.

3. The undoubted difficulty of slowing the growth of government, let alone reducing the size of a massive government, manifests itself in what has come to be called the iron triangle. At one corner are the direct beneficiaries of a law; at a second, the legislative committees and their staffs; at a third, the bureaucracy administering a law. These three powerful tyrannies enforce the status quo. … Taken together, the three corners of the iron triangle guard against dismantling the functions of government. The tyranny of the status quo is strong and difficult to break.