Government explained
Concepts and tools for understanding public decisions and their effects on your life.
How to evaluate a proposal
Political discussions often mix five types of claim. Separating them improves the conversation: value, observed fact, causal explanation, hypothesis and choice.
How to examine evidence
Learn to check a source, compare outcomes and recognise what the data do not yet allow us to conclude.
How to monitor a commitment
Proposal, commitment, delivery and outcome are not the same thing. Understand what needs to be clear to monitor a public decision.
Who guarantees, who pays and who delivers?
Understand who guarantees access, funds and provides a public service, and who sets rules, evaluates outcomes and requires corrections.
What makes a public service work?
Teams, resources, coordination and continuity: what needs to be ready between announcing a policy and delivering a reliable service.
Good policies require choices
Protection, work, competition, democracy and service quality: five tensions for examining the benefits, costs and limits of a public decision.
Public money
Revenue, spending, debt and what each measure can tell us.
Taxes, incentives and revenue
The Laffer curve, elasticity, tax incidence and disposable income: understand what changes when people and companies respond to rules.
How the economy affects your life
Interest, money, credit and public funds: understand how decisions affect income, work and opportunities.