Occasionally there appear books that by their great insight and scholarship come to define the terms of the debate surrounding great controversies. The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State, by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, (New York: The Penguin Press HC, 2014), is not one of these books. Indeed, it does try to define new terms and makes valid observations about the sad condition of the present-day State. But the two English authors seem to indulge in the postmodern mania of reinventing everything when all that is really needed is a return to roots. No matter how many times you try to reinvent the wheel, the final product will always be round. And so it should be in dealing with the problems and distortions of the modern State. In the end, the State must always deal with the political organization and order of the nation; its role is to safeguard the common good and facilitate virtuous life in common. But what Micklethwait and Wooldridge propose...(Read Full Article)