Why So Many Different Government Programs?

GAO has a report out this week outlining duplication in programs among different government agencies.  They find lots of duplication.  I seem to remember similar concerns back in the Nixon and Reagan administrations; one of the reasons for replacing programs with block grants, which Reagan tried to do, was to eliminate such duplication. 

Why do we have such duplication?  There's no doubt good and necessary reasons for the programs, but I'd suggest one reason is human ego.  Consider a politician, a Congressperson politician. Consider an activist.  Now imagine a " need" for government action, and ask the activist to work for such action and the politician to pass a law implementing such action.  I put "need" in quotes to recognize the word is just a placeholder for different categorizations according to the political philosophy of the onlooker.

The activist and politician face an immediate strategic choice:

• do they identify the existing government program and agency which is most closely related to the "need" and try to modify and enhance the program and agency accordingly?
• do they create a new program to be assigned to an existing agency?
• do they create a new agency to handle the new program?

Now consider the incentives they face. If they go with the new program, they can design from scratch, without having to research what lessons may have been learned by the existing bureaucrats running the existing program. Research takes time and energy; any self-respecting "need" requires immediate action.  Furthermore, there are likely other politicians, activists, and bureaucrats already associated with the existing programs who may not like the idea of "Johnny-come-latelies" trying to modify something they're proud of.  And remember money.  More money will be required for the additional government action.

All things considered, it will be easier for the activist and the politician to go with a separate program, preferably labeled in honor of the pol.  Politicians don't campaign on improving existing programs; they campaign on creating new ones or shutting old ones down. That's the way our government works.