Why Nothing Works

This episode of Booked On Planning features a conversation with author Mark Dunkelman about his book, "Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back". Dunkelman explains the origins of American progressivism as a response to the upheaval created by railroads and national-scale economic power, outlining two competing impulses within the movement: a Jeffersonian push to break up big institutions and return power to smaller, local actors, and a Hamiltonian push to build strong public institutions capable of regulating large private entities.

The discussion traces how the U.S. shifted toward large-scale governance in the New Deal and mid-20th century, then swung back in the 1960s–1970s as public trust eroded due to environmental damage, highways cutting through communities, urban renewal, Vietnam, and Watergate, leading to layered legal and procedural checks that can fragment decision-making and make it difficult for governments to act quickly.

Dunkelman describes how the judiciary’s role changed over time—from blocking early progressive efforts (the Lochner era), to enabling expansive government action, to later handcuffing agencies through decisions and requirements such as environmental review and litigation pathways, illustrated by the Overton Park fight in Memphis that left a gap in I-40. He argues that today’s system resembles a “tragedy of the commons in reverse,” where widespread veto points prevent collective action, citing the inability to build transmission lines needed to move clean energy.

The episode also connects these themes to housing, noting bipartisan attention to increasing housing supply and the limits of zoning alone, and closes with advice for planners: value public input but design processes that end with accountable decision-makers so “everyone has a say but no one has a veto.” Dunkelman recommends Elizabeth "Cohen’s Making a New Deal" and her book on Ed Logue "Saving America's Cities", and "Cadillac Desert" as a companion critique akin to The Power Broker.