Unfinished Business

By Roger Douglas

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1869411994
• ISBN13: 9781869411985
• Release Date: November 1993
• Publisher: Random House UK
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Reform: Public interest vs. vested interest

Roger Douglas was the finance minister of New Zealand Labor government in late 1980s. He envisioned famous deregulation process at that time. That policy frame was called as Rogernomics. It was comparable to Thatcher's reform. This book is not about that politics but the program on what should be done to New Zealand to prosper. To that end, the author propose various policies based on hard numbers. But those figures are not that interesting to foreigners. What seduce foreigners are his looking back on deregulation process in late 1980s which he initiated. He depicts clearly what is deregulaton of reform: reform is the process to achieve public interest against vested interest. New Zealand had and has suffered economic inefficiency from decades of government's overintervention into private sector under Labor Party ruling since 1940s. Most policieswhic had been put into effect under the name of welfare state, eventualy proved to be populist pork barrel politics. New Zealand economy has suffered from good politics but bad policies over decades. in effect populist politics could not be carried on with a few hundreds % of deficit. in 1980s every politicians admitted the need of reforming public sector. But it was not easy task at all. "I know the reform is needed. But constituencies don't want it" What did Roger Douglas to his country is propose the vision in the face of constituencies. He insists that once you could ensure them with the vision, you could carry on reform against the jungle of vested interest. In this book, you can get the clear idea of what is reform and how it should be put into effect.

Insightful book with constructive ideas to reform government

Roger Douglas, former finance minister for the Labor Party in New Zealand, writes an insightful book arguing for transparency in government. Argues for accrual based accounting, consumption taxation, school vouchers, etc. Should be required reading for any government official or politician. The numbers make it a bit dry but a must read book