In https://aeon.co/essays/we-are-more-rational-than-those-who-nudge-us Steven Poole argues against the coercive anti-rational implications of the Nudge thesis. I remember reading Sunnstein’s “Nudge” years ago, and how it opened my eyes to the possibilities of inducing rational behavior on a societal scale. Since the book came out, as the article points out, Western governments have embraced its policy suggestions, in some cases hiring “choice architects” to create policy such that the general populace “did the right thing” by default.
Not far from here to Lessig’s “Tweed-ism” primary thesis. In fact, we might be seeing the breakdown of this in the surging candidacies of Sanders and Trump, as described by Clay Shirky