The Trouble with Government

In The State of the Nation, published in 1996, Harvard President Emeritus Bok compared America's progress in 17 different fields over the past 40 years to the progress of six other advanced industrial democracies. This companion volume seeks to explain and propose remedies for government failings that affect the wide range of areas in which America lags. Bok first considers and largely rejects common diagnoses of what ails American government--politicians and parties, the media and special interests--then proposes his own theory of the four basic weaknesses that afflict this country: poorly designed legislation, burdensome regulation, the neglect of working-class interests and failed antipoverty policies. Three chapters examine and perceptively criticize widely proposed antidotes, before considering solutions specifically targeting the four basic weaknesses. Despite the short shrift given some arguments, Bok's reasoning is generally persuasive, impressively informed and deft at unearthing root causes behind supposed sources of distress. He's especially convincing in tracing regulatory dysfunction to our adversarial, individualistic culture, fragmented government and lack of broadly inclusive organizations representing business, labor and other relevant interest groups. But while the relative successes of certain social democracies justifies his inquiry, Bok shuns any systematic examination of those nations' achievements or of how they might be adapted. He runs out of steam pondering remedies with an individualist focus that seem more symptom than cure--a disappointing conclusion to an illuminating, vitally important quest. (Mar.)