A new normal is quietly taking hold in many Western states: people are asking for leaner, that is to say less wasteful, and more efficient government, and a sharper focus on ‘value for money’. From Javier Milei’s chainsaw approach in Buenos Aires to (formerly) Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in Washington, the case for fiscal rigour and streamlined institutions seems open and shut. But is government efficiency alone a panacea?
Milei’s Chainsaw
Argentina’s president entered office in December 2023 at the eleventh hour, amid 211% inflation and a fiscal hole so large that it seemed unpatchable. In eighteen months, his administration has cut real public spending by 30%, scrapped subsidies, reduced ministries from 18 to 8, and dismissed 48,000 public employees. Results are, on the surface, impressive. The country posted its first primary surplus since 2010 (0.3% of GDP in 2024), annual inflation has tumbled to 66.9%, and the IMF forecasts 5.5% growth next year, the fastest in the G20 .
But those figures mask acute social pain. Poverty jumped to 38% while a record 20 billion USD IMF programme has significantly deepened foreign-currency dependency, effectively mortgaging Argentina’s policy autonomy to international creditors. Milei’s own rhetoric recasts sovereignty as “market success”, yet that very success now makes Argentina much more vulnerable to external shocks and increases its dependence on continuing external finance, rather than building the productive capabilities that might support genuine Argentinian economic sovereignty.
At the end of the day, Argentina is now enjoying lower prices and restored international creditworthiness, but the real fruits of Milei’s fast-paced, radical austerity programme remains to be seen.
Musk’s DOGE
In the Northern hemisphere, Musk’s brainchild, the Department of Government Efficiency, originally promised 2 trillion USD in savings, but this figure has since shrunk to just 150 billion USD (7.5% of the original target). While DOGE has cancelled some wasteful contracts and reduced the federal workforce, it has also found that the majority of federal spending – from Social Security and Medicare to the Pentagon – lies outside its reach. Independent verification found only around 2 billion USD of measurable savings, and mismanaged dismissals may have cost taxpayers more than what was saved.
Nevertheless, DOGE’s cross-departmental ‘efficiency squads’ have increased awareness of procurement waste and data sharing. Although Musk’s brief intervention in US politics has not yet achieved dramatic spending reductions, it has the potential to lead to efficiency-focused thinking and a change in spending culture in the future. American public opinion certainly supports eliminating wastefulness and inefficiency: although the vast majority view DOGE’s particular methods unfavourably, Americans have long believed that the federal government is wasteful. In February 2025, some three quarters of the country supported a full-scale effort to find and eliminate fraud and waste in government.
Necessary Medicine, Incomplete Cure
It is hard to criticise the basic economic logic of reducing government deficits and debt accumulation. The numbers matter – high taxes and deficits corrode economic growth and confidence – and James Carville’s famous “It’s the economy, stupid” comes to mind. There is no healthy society without a healthy economy.
However, the pursuit of efficiency reveals a blind spot when applied uncritically: it reduces politics to spreadsheet management. While eliminating waste and providing ‘value for money’ are prerequisites for effective governance, they do not constitute its fulfilment. Milei’s reduction of national sovereignty to the market, DOGE’s fixation on short-term savings, and many other such examples worldwide all have major drawbacks, not least because they ignore the human cost.
The Big Picture
Since the advent of many of our contemporary political and economic institutions after World War II, our Western bureaucratic structures have undeniably expanded, become more complex, and grown heavier. The functions of the state have multiplied, new specialized agencies have emerged, and regulations and procedures have proliferated freely over the decades. The number of traditional intergovernmental organizations—such as the UN and the Commonwealth—has grown from around ten in 1945 to 290 in 2024, an increase of almost 30 times. Similarly, the proliferation of rules and procedures, both national and international, has become so massive that it is almost impossible for small organizations or ordinary citizens to keep up with regulatory changes. The demand for government efficiency is therefore perfectly legitimate.
With an aging population and exploding public debt, urgent budgetary discipline is needed. We should therefore welcome the fact that the issue is finally on the table and that public opinion is increasingly recognizing the need for efficiency. We must also remain hopeful that it will actually be pursued—provided we remember that this is not the whole story, and that austerity divorced from human reality can prove just as harmful.
