Understanding Big Government - Richard Rose

What grows when government grows? Why? What are the consequences for effectiveness and consent? Richard Rose answers these questions clearly and succinctly. The programme approach relates what government is, a set of organizations, to what these institutions do, namely, mobilize laws, money and employees to produce public programmes. The programmes are concerned with such varied things as education, health, pensions, economic development, law and order and national defence.
There is a wealth of ideas and data about which governments are biggest, comparing America, Britain, Continental European and Scandinavian countries; when governments grow, comparing the affluent 1960s with the difficult 1970s and the uncertain 1980s; and why some government programmes grow much more than others.