many of pour proudest cities are virtually bankrupt. Confidence in government has fallen to record lows (xv; 1).
This point is well made, but it is a conclusion which is generally accepted and is not the essential feature of the book. When the authors move to their solutions to the problems of government, their own problems appear.
Their survey of the major changes in the world in recent years gives us a clue to the nature of the shortcomings of the book. They paint a picture of the situation in the United States and around the world as one in which amazing and glorious opportunities for rejuvenation of society and government abound on every level:
If ever there were a time for seekers, this is it. The millennium approaches, and change is all around us. Eastern Europe is free; the Soviet empire is dissolving; the cold war is over. Western Europe is moving toward economic union. Asia is the center of global economic power. From Poland to South Africa, democracy is on the march (xv).
In every one of these areas, the opposite conclusion could be drawn. Certainly radical change is upon us, but the more objective and realistic appraisal would be that the changes are for the worse rather than the better, toward dissolution and disaster rather than freedom and plenty. Eastern Europe is not "free," but rather only no longer under the dark cloud of Soviet Communism. Would the authors consider the former Yugoslavia "free," wracked as it is by tribal war and genocide? Even the "peace" in the offing there will certainly prove difficult to enforce or sustain. The Soviet empire is certainly dissolving, but it has resulted in a precarious situation in what remains of that empire. The cold war may be over, but the dangers of nuclear proliferation---fed by uncontrolled nuclear components in and out of the former Soviet Union---have perhaps even worsened. Western Europe's economic union is questionable, with nations hardly trusting one ...