From Weber to Kafka: Political Instability and the Overproduction of Laws

Yes, the overproduction of laws is a serious issue in Western democracies!

Rarely, do our busybody, often lifetime, legislators spend time to remove outdated or overbearing laws. There used to be e.g. a reform approach like legislation with sunset provision that automatically expires laws unless the legislature upholds them by a new vote.

Something to ponder about!

Paper abstract:

"With inefficient bureaucratic institutions, the effects of laws are hard to assess and incompetent politicians may pass laws to build a reputation as skillful reformers. Since too many laws curtail bureaucratic efficiency, this mechanism can generate a steady state with Kafkaesque bureaucracy. Temporary surges in political instability heighten the incentives to overproduce laws and can shift the economy towards the Kafkaesque state. Consistent with the theory, after a surge in political instability in the early 1990s, Italy experienced a significant increase in the amount of poor-quality legislation and a decrease in bureaucratic efficiency."

From Weber to Kafka: Political Instability and the Overproduction of Laws - American Economic Association (no public access)

https://gratton.org/papers/WebertoKafka.pdf (The paper courtesy to one of the authors)