Attack on Government: Fear, Distrust, & Hatred in Public Life

Levine (economics, U. of Denver) analyzes Americans’ distrust of government as a psychodynamic process in which we invest the government, through projection, our own collective inner identification irresponsibility and corruption. He sees the free market ideology of limited government types as a sort of “anti-government” fantasy similar to that experienced by a neglected child who compensates by constructing the fantasy that the parent is not needed. The danger, argues Levine, is that just as the neglected or abused child will sometimes seek to shift their harm to others, so the limited government advocates seeks to provoke government to act in ways that are neglectful or abusive. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)