Big government - Definition and Overview

Big government is a pejorative term used mostly by political conservatives or advocates of laissez-faire to describe the central government of their country. The term is mainly used to evoke criticism of a government which is believed to be excessively large and costly, with too many programs that interfere on too many areas of public life.

Critics of "big government" are usually critical of welfare, high taxes, and government-funded or subsidised industries. They often omit criticism of big military budgets, big police forces, or prisons.

Some, more populist, observers combine criticism of "big government" with "big business," seeing them as almost always in alliance against the population. Yet others add "big labor," to form an unholy trinity, though this seems difficult in many countries, such as the United States in the twenty-first century, where organized labor has greatly weakened.