Review of The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror (Hardcover)

I had never heard of George Soros until I read an editorial he sent in to the Wall Street Journal. The editorial piqued my interest and so I looked him up and discovered this book.

The Age of Fallibility is very well written and presents very complicated theories in an easy to grasp from. Soros writes with the mentality of someone that really wants to get his point across: He tells you what he is going to talk about, talks about it, and then tells you what he just talked about. This has the affect of seeming a bit repetitive, but at the same time, you realize that the ideas are actually sinking in.

The first half of the book is dedicated to Soros' theory of reflexivity. Basically, reality isn't a fixed thing that we work around, it is constantly changing because of our actions and our thoughts. The idea of an open society is one that accepts that we will never reach a "perfect" solution to anything and so we must always work together to improve what we are doing, understanding that each improvement we make will require additional improvements.

The second half of the book is geared towards asking what is currently wrong with America, what is wrong with the world, and what we can do to fix it. Soros gives an in depth look into all three topics and makes some very good points.

To say that George Soros is anti-American is just silly. He merely points out the ways in which Americans can improve in our domestic and foreign policies. This is part of the open society model. There is always room for improvement. Pointing out that something can be improved is not the same as being against it.

The book got over my head a bit towards the end. I don't know enough about Russia to follow a lot of the points made there. Overall, this is a great book for someone who is interested in what is currently happening in this country and the world and would like to know more.



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Review of The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New Governance (Hardcover)

Lester Salamon's edited book, "The Tools of Government," is an immensely useful work that identifies the various tools that government has today to effect its goals.Government policy-making has changed in recent decades.Now, problem solving by the public sector is not carried out by government alone.Nonprofits and the private sector have become involved, too.As Salamon notes (page vii): "Largely overlooked. . .has been the extent to which actual public problem solving has come to embrace the collaborative actions of governments at multiple levels and both government and private institutions."

A table on page 3 well illustrates this thesis.This table shows that:

(1) In social service delivery, 56% of services are delivered by nonprofits, 4% by for-profits, and 40% by government.

(2) In health, 44% of services are delivered by nonprofits, 23% by for-profits, and 33% by government.And so on.In reality, public service delivery is a complex mixture of government and non-governmental actors.

This volume describes the various tools used by those who deliver services--from economic regulation to government corporations to vouchers to grants to loans to tort liability to contracting and so on.The point is simple: there are many tools that can be used to achieve public goals--whether those services are actually delivered by the private sector, not-for-profits, or government itself.

However, tools are not developed and deployed in a vacuum.This volume also discusses the use of such tools in democracy and the nature of the politics of tool use.Also well discussed is accountability of the nonprofit, for-profit, and governmental sectors.

In the end, a well worthwhile book for those interested in how government decisions and priorities become implemented and services delivered.The book is not elegantly written, but there is much content here.



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