E

The question of the effectiveness of government has come to worry many Western governments. Many observers, frequently conservative politicians, claim that the modern state is in a parlous condition as a result of what some writers have termed `governmental overload'. This is said to have resulted from government intervention in areas of social and economic life where it is unable to make any real impact on the substantive problems; the negative by-products include increasing public expenditure and the arousal of a widespread popular cynicism at unfulfilled expectations. In the USA the `Great Society' years, 1964±68, under President Lyndon B. Johnson, saw a major expansion of the federal government's role in social policy, but this was followed by a reaction based on the observation that poverty seemed as pervasive as ever and some problems (for example crime) even seemed to have become more acute. The resulting mood of scepticism about the role of the federal government (see neo-conservatism) led to an unwillingness to spend public money without good evidence that it would make a measurable difference to the problem involved. From desire for visible effectiveness of government comes reluctance to embark on attempts to resolve problems in difficult policy areas, such as social and health matters, and preference that responsibility for these be transferred to agencies and organizations beyond direct government control. Meanwhile, foreign policy problems which seemed to offer a highly visible and positive result over a predictable time period came to be accepted with some eagerness. This broad distinction between the approaches towards two entirely different policy areas illustrates the general dislike for incrementalism, the gradual introduction of minor adjustments to policy with their results continuously monitored, and the favouring of ambitious, wide-ranging total solutions to a problem. However the world-wide acceptance of the limitations of state action which came about when European Socialist parties largely abandoned social democracy in favour of something like the UK's New Labour or Third Way policies has made all governments more modest in their aims and expectations. Furthermore the enthusiasm for foreign policy has

abated with the late 20th century's experience of Western governments finding external commitments deeply entangling.