IN DEFENSE OF GOVERNMENT: The Fall and Rise of Public Trust - Hardcover

Weisberg, Jacob

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684816040 ISBN 13: 9780684816043

Publisher: Scribner, 1996

Synopsis

In his In Defense of Government, Jacob Weisberg draws on the entire history of the republic to construct a lucid and compelling case that the government can and must be an agent for social change and economic progress.
Explaining why the public really lost faith in government, Weisberg lays bare both the incoherence of the Republican assault on everything the federal government touches as well as the feebleness of the Democratic responses coming from the Clinton administration and elsewhere.
As an alternative to conservative evasion and liberal confusion, Weisberg proposes a new progressive answer. The restoration of public trust, he argues, demands limited but activist government. A reasoned polemic, this book is both an antidote for depressed liberals and a powerful challenge to thoughtful conservatives.

About this title

Reviews

In a thoughtful critique of the anti-big government sentiment that dominates U.S. political discourse, New York magazine political columnist Weisberg charges that Bob Dole, Newt Gingrich and many fellow Republicans are "pseudolibertarians" who use the rhetoric of smaller government but generally support costly federal programs. The pseudolibertarians are "Reagan's true disciples," Weisberg declares, noting that during Reagan's administration, federal spending on social programs, education and agriculture substantially increased. A contributing editor to New Republic, Weisberg also blasts "reactionary liberal" Democrats (e.g., Mario Cuomo, Richard Gephardt) who, in his assessment, dodge the pressing need to balance the budget, revamp a deeply flawed welfare system and check uncontrolled Medicare costs. According to Weisberg, President Clinton fumbled his attempt to forge a new majority coalition when he abandoned his campaign call for a "New Covenant," meaning that government should enlarge opportunity rather than dispense benefits. Skeptical of government funding for the arts but hopeful that government can further broaden goals such as racial progress, Weisberg urges Democrats to return to the pragmatic approach of pre-New Deal Progressives such as New Republic founder Herbert Croly.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684816040
• ISBN 13: 9780684816043
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208