Dimensions
162 x 240 x 30mm
Dysfunctional government has become a cliché, and it is all too easy to believe that nothing is ever going to change. Here, in an argument that spans the globe, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge show that the truth is very different. There have already been three great revolutions in government in the history of the modern world. We are now in the midst of a fourth - and for the first time, Western governments risk being left behind.
A country's success depends overwhelmingly on its ability to reinvent the state. But, while China is making rapid progress with government reform, gridlock in Washington is seeing America fall badly behind, and flailing democracies like India look enviously at China's state-of-the-art airports and expanding universities.
The race to get government right is not just a race of efficiency. It is a race to see which political values will triumph in the twenty-first century: the liberal values of democracy and liberty, or the authoritarian values of command and control. The stakes could not be higher.
The time of big government is over. The age of smart government has begun.
