Book Review: The Future of Government
| Author | R. A. Preston |
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070205100600117 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BooK
REVIEWS
67
ently doing more
than
cause slight
quivers
in American
equanimity
was
brought
home
to
Canadians
by
the
freight-car
dispute.
But
another
anomaly
may
be
new
to
readers
of
this
book
in
Canada.
As Professor
McCamy
shows
repeatedly,
the
staff
of
the
policy-making
Department
of
State,
and
of
the
Foreign
service
which
puts
policy
into
effect,
are
distinct
in
personnel
and
administered
entirely
separately,
with
the result
that
the
Foreign
Service
is
to
some
extent
independent
of
the
Secretary
of
State. Administrative
contradictions
of
this
kind,
and
the growth
of
a multitude
of
independent
conflicting agencies
for
dealing
with
aspects
of
foreign
policy,
explain
much
of
the
inconsistency which
has
appeared
in
that
policy.
It
is
the
more
remarkable,
then,
that
there
should
have
been
during
recent years, over
the
contradictions
and
incon-
sistencies,
a
firm
and
steady American
determination
to
assume world
leadership
and
to
support international
organization.
The
most
disturbing,
though
not
surprising,
feature
of
Professor
McCamy's criticisms
of
the
cracks
in
the
American
system
is,
however,
that
he
never
investigates
whether
chaos
in
the
administrative
organiza-
tion
is
due
at
bottom
to
the separation
of
the
powers
of
government.
Nor
does he
discuss
the fundamental
question
whether
tinkering
with
the administrative
machine (and
almost annually
during
the present
decade
there
have
been
"reorganizations"
of
the
State
Department
or
of
the
Foreign
Service),
even
though
such
tampering
is
accompanied
by
the pouring
of oil
on
the
troubled
waters
between
the
White
House
and
Capitol
Hill,
can effectively
solve
the
problem
which
threatens
to
endanger
the
well-being
of
mankind,
namely
the
use
of
an eighteenth
century
system
of
government
in
the
vastly
different
circumstances
of
the twentieth
century.
Royal
Military
College
of
Canada.
R.
A.
Preston
TaE
FUTURE
OF
GOVERNMENT.
By
Herman
Finer.
1949.
(London:
Methuen.
Toronto:
British
Book
Service.
ix,
196
pp.
$2.50,
members
$1.70.)
Although
published
in
1946
as
a
separate
work,
this
book
is
really
the
third
volume
of
Mr.
Finer's
analysis
of
the
nature
of
modern govern-
ment
which
appeared
in
two
volumes
in
1932.
In
the earlier
volumes
on
the
Theory
and
Practice
of
Modern
Government
Mr.
Finer
argued
that
progress
towards
perfect
democracy
was
not
inevitable.
Following
in
the
footsteps
of
Lord
Bryce,
but
with
another
half
century
of
democratic
experience
on
which
to
draw,
he
showed
that
democratic
government
was
liable
to
fall
before
forces
which
sprang
from
the growing
com-
plexity
of
modern
life.
The
third
volume in
1946
was
written
(in
a
justifiable
spirit
of
"I
told
you so")
to
sum
up the
experiences
of eco-
nomic
depression,
the
growth
of
fascist
dictatorships,
and
World
War
II.
In
The
Future
of
Government
Mr.
Finer
has
analysed
the problems
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