Why does government find it so hard to persuade people to stop smoking, eat more healthily, recycle waste, use their cars less? Across a range of behaviours policy makers appear powerless. Raising prices seems an obvious method of making us change our ways, but government s capacity to manipulate markets is limited. In a strong set of specially written essays, experts examine just what government can make us do. The nanny charge only sticks if nanny is obeyed. Increasingly she isn t.







From crime to neighbourhoods, migration to smoking, religious belief to energy consumption, this book questions if our government is nannying or if our policy makers are powerless

Analyses what behaviours have changed during ten years of a left-liberal 'progressive' government

Questions if government effectiveness is determined by scale or location - would more local governments make us more responsive?

Includes essays from some of the most acute observers of government and public conduct in modern Britain

Examines how effective government is in securing changes in behaviour and makes recommendations for change