Dark Horses

A new book worth reading for itself but apparently also much in line with the current thinking of the Reagan Administration is Privatizing the Public Sector (Chatham House, P.O. Box 1, Chatham, N.J. 07928; $15), by E. S. Savas, Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In the late 1950s almost 80 per cent of the American people were sufficiently temerarious to express trust in their government; by the mid-Seventies the percentage had fallen to 33. Now, Savas argues, the governed have withdrawn their consent, thereby ushering in a dangerous era for the American polity. The chief cause of the public disillusionment is burgeoned, intrusive government at every level. The election of Ronald Reagan was a mandate, Savas believes, for the shrinking of government; a ratification of the long-unpopular minority opinion that most of the work Big Government was devised two generations ago to do has been accomplished, and that the social welfare state itself has fallen heir to a multiplicity of abuses long associated with overweening bureaucracies. There are ways, Savas suggests, “to check the growth of government and to reduce unwarranted and unwanted dependence on government agencies, thereby mitigating the hazards that an overly dominant government represents.”

CW

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Chilton Williamson Jr.

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A new book worth reading for itself but apparently also much in line with the current thinking of the Reagan Administration is Privatizing the Public Sector (Chatham House, P.O. Box 1, Chatham, N.J. 07928; $15), by E. S. Savas, Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In the late 1950s almost 80 per cent of the American people were sufficiently temerarious to express trust in their government; by the mid-Seventies the percentage had fallen to 33. Now, Savas argues, the governed have withdrawn their consent, thereby ushering in a dangerous era for the American polity. The chief cause of the public disillusionment is burgeoned, intrusive government at every level. The election of Ronald Reagan was a mandate, Savas believes, for the shrinking of government; a ratification of the long-unpopular minority opinion that most of the work Big Government was devised two generations ago to do has been accomplished, and that the social welfare state itself has fallen heir to a multiplicity of abuses long associated with overweening bureaucracies. There are ways, Savas suggests, “to check the growth of government and to reduce unwarranted and unwanted dependence on government agencies, thereby mitigating the hazards that an overly dominant government represents.”