The extent to which the government can effectively tackle complex societal problems is an issue that is hotly contested. While some writers, more often those on the Right, are inherently sceptical of the state’s “problem solving” ability, others, more often those on the Left, argue that the difficult issues that bedevil our society can be successfully combatted: whether it be through “traditional” policy instruments such as regulation and legislative edict, or “new” policy instruments such as markets and incentives, or some mixture of the two. In reality, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. While governments do have some capacity…