Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy

Nick Gillespie | November 14, 2005

Just in time for this weekend's opening of the new Harry Potter flick, Glenn Reynolds shares a tip about this interesting new paper, Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy. A snippet from the abstract:

This Essay examines what the Harry Potter series (and particularly the most recent book, The Half-Blood Prince) tells us about government and bureaucracy. There are two short answers. The first is that Rowling presents a government (The Ministry of Magic) that is 100% bureaucracy. There is no discernable executive or legislative branch, and no elections. There is a modified judicial function, but it appears to be completely dominated by the bureaucracy, and certainly does not serve as an independent check on governmental excess.

Second, government is controlled by and for the benefit of the self-interested bureaucrat. The most cold-blooded public choice theorist could not present a bleaker portrait of a government captured by special interests and motivated solely by a desire to increase bureaucratic power and influence.

More here.

Julian Sanchez imagined Eichmann at Hogwarts here and Michael Valdez Moses discussed England's leading import export in relation to Lord of the Rings and Star Wars here.