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The Power to Lead: The Crisis of the American Presidency, by James MacGregor Burns (Simon & Schuster, 288 pp., $16.95)

When one tackles the work of political scientists it is useful to get a good grip on their first premises, for some of them are slippery fellows who will put one by you if you are not careful. With the work of James MacGregor Burns it is necessary to take the additional precaution of being aware of a premise that is not there, namely the idea that limited government is desirable or even that there can be such a thing. The concept of limited government exists nowhere in his head, and he seems entirely unaware that it has ever been thought of: Itisasifhe has had some highly specialized form of lobotomy. Hence it never occurs to him that the paralysis of government he so heartily deplores might be the consequence of efforts by government to do things that are not the proper business of government, and especially not of the Federal Government. Hence, also, he can denounce neoconservatives for callously ignoring the problems of the poor, whereas they have labored long and well to demonstrate that government programs have exacerbated those problems; and he can view with genuine astonishment President Reagan’s statement that totalitarianism is “the focus of evil in the modern world.”

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Forrest McDonald

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The Power to Lead: The Crisis of the American Presidency, by James MacGregor Burns (Simon & Schuster, 288 pp., $16.95)

When one tackles the work of political scientists it is useful to get a good grip on their first premises, for some of them are slippery fellows who will put one by you if you are not careful. With the work of James MacGregor Burns it is necessary to take the additional precaution of being aware of a premise that is not there, namely the idea that limited government is desirable or even that there can be such a thing. The concept of limited government exists nowhere in his head, and he seems entirely unaware that it has ever been thought of: Itisasifhe has had some highly specialized form of lobotomy. Hence it never occurs to him that the paralysis of government he so heartily deplores might be the consequence of efforts by government to do things that are not the proper business of government, and especially not of the Federal Government. Hence, also, he can denounce neoconservatives for callously ignoring the problems of the poor, whereas they have labored long and well to demonstrate that government programs have exacerbated those problems; and he can view with genuine astonishment President Reagan’s statement that totalitarianism is “the focus of evil in the modern world.”