ABSTRACT
This book is concerned with theories about the behaviour, performance and reform of modern governments. The governments in question are those generally described as ‘Western democracies’ which have capitalist or ‘mixed’ economies. Foremost in my mind are the English-speaking democracies of the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, with a particular stress upon the first of these, which I know best. In a general way (and sometimes specifically) the analysis applies also to other democracies in Western Europe and Scandinavia. However, the coverage does not extend either to Communist states or to Third World countries which would require a different kind of analysis.
