There's a segment of American society that does not have much use for government, and would prefer government to get smaller and less conspicuous.
But if the point of government is to do things that individuals and business can't or won't do, there's some need remaining. And the outbreak of COVID-19 around the world demonstrated that need.
Western governments are still struggling to clamp down on the spread of the virus, a situation noted in the book The Wake-Up Call: Why the Pandemic Has Exposed the Weakness of the West, and How to Fix It.
It is the work of John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg News, and Adrian Wooldridge, Washington Correspondent for The Economist. John Micklethwait is our guest.