Book Reviews Borre, Ole, and Elinor Scarbrough (eds). The Scope of Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. Pp. xviii, 421. Index. $65. This book examines mass beliefs in Western Europe since 1960. The key questions posed in it are what are governments doing, and what can, will and should they do. It analyses how beliefs on these questions vary across nations, social and political groups as well as over historical time and it looks into the influence that public opinion has on public policy. This 437-page book, written by 12 scholars from eight European countries, comprises an introduction and four parts: 'General Issues', 'Taxation and Policy Issues', 'The Cultural and Natural Environment' and 'Assessing Scope-of-government Beliefs'. The Scope of Government presents many interesting observations, which are usefully summarized by Ole Borre in Chapter 13. For instance, there is a lack of hard core opposition to the welfare state in Europe. There are few tax revolters and criticism is more likely to be voiced on how the tax system works in practice than on its basic principles. The public may have lost faith in politicians, but not in the political system itself. While there is a desire for the government to assume responsibility for many tasks, there is nonetheless a concern with the power of government. Public opinion seeks increased spending in some areas and less spending in others and there seems to be no pattern of continuously increasing or declining support for government intervention. Rather, the pattern seems to be one of cycles and ups-and-downs. Most surprising from a democratic point of view is the shortcomings of the available data. The major part of the authors observe a lack of time series and data allowing cross-national comparisons. The authors are exemplary in calling the reader's attention to these weaknesses. Still, for those who believe in the notion of informed citizens as the political engine of democracies - rewarding government or opposition in terms of matching policy preferences - the situation is disappointing. This is even more so because the scope and means of government intervention has for a long time been a major political cleavage in Europe and because the book focuses on key issues like taxes, government intervention in the economy and in cultural life, its role in protecting the environment, public health and general welfare. The chapter on public attitudes and changes in health care by Achille Ardigó is the most self-examining contribution. The author asks what surveys really say about public opinion, politics and policy-making, given that they do not reflect the enormous recent changes in the organization, financing and services of the health care system. By and large, however, the authors are theory-users more than theory-builders. As a frame of reference, they briefly outline theoretical positions and then formulate competing hypotheses based on these ideas. The usual conclusion is that several theoretical ideas have some merit and no single theoretical position can explain the observations made. No attempts are made to develop new theoretical syntheses. Generally there is a lack of firm theoretical grounding on how beliefs about the proper boundaries between the public and the private sphere and the proper means of government intervention are formed, maintained and changed. The same is true when it comes to the conditions under which public opinion becomes an important determinant of government policies. The processes and mechanisms at work and the causal arrows between public opinion and public policies simply are not well understood. In sum, this is a competent and honest book on an important theme. In a way the book calls attention to knowledge that is lacking rather than to past achievements. Johan P. Olsen University of Oslo
	© 1990-2004 European Journal of International Law All comments and suggestions should be sent to webmaster This site is part of the Academy of European Law online, a joint partnership of the Jean Monnet Center at NYU School of Law and the Academy of European Law at the European University Institute. This file was last modified: Tuesday, October 14, 2003 01:14PM