[Book review:] The Assault on the State: How the Global Attack on Modern Government Endangers Our Future, by Stephen E. Hanson and Jeffrey S. Kopstein [UCI professor of political science]. Their book is short, clearly written and dreadfully important. It does not advocate this or that political or economic theory. It does not even particularly defend democracy. It gives us the unwelcome but unavoidable news that state bureaucracy – the thing we love to hate, the pantomime villain of politics, the second best source of jokes after mothers-in-law – is crucial to our happiness, freedom and well-being, and is in mortal danger.

For the full story, please visit https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-state-bureaucracy-is-crucial-to-our-happiness/.