Strands of thought
There are two main strains of thought on economic efficiency, which respectively emphasize the distortions created by
governments (and reduced by
decreasing government involvement) and the distortions created by
markets (and reduced by
increasing government involvement). These are at times competing, at times complementary—either debating the
overall level of government involvement, or the effects of
specific government involvement. Broadly speaking, this dialog takes place in the context of
economic liberalism or
neoliberalism, though these terms are also used more narrowly to refer to particular views, especially advocating laissez faire.