Liz Truss (the former British PM who stepped down after only 49 days in office) is in the Wall Street Journal with a fascinating editorial, this morning:
I assumed that I would be able to drive through the agenda on which I was elected. How wrong I was. The opaque British bureaucratic state undermined my proposed reforms, and their American equivalents will have Mr. Trump in their sights if he is victorious in November.
I mean… really? She really didn't know that the bureaucracies in western democracies make policy? Entire books have been written about this phenomenon (not to mention the hilarious BBC comedy series dating all the way back to the eighties, Yes Minister). Assuming this isn't a bit of poetic license, or an attempt at shifting the blame for her short tenure, I'm stunned. She made it to the pinnacle of a political career without understanding how her own government works.
Update: Yascha Mounk had Jonathon Lynn, co-creator of "Yes, Minister" on his Persuasion podcast. The title is "Jonathan Lynn on How Government Works". Liz Truss should give it a listen.