The Erosion of Public Goods

I am grateful for Stephen LeDrew’s review of my Good Government? Good Citizens?. He suggests that “practicing politicians and public policy commentators will do well to read this book … It is [one] that will be looked back on ten years from now as a bellwether.”

Nevertheless, Mr. LeDrew has mischaracterized the book in an important way. The review can leave the impression that I place great faith in the law and the judiciary in ensuring the “good public goods” that I see as so essential to a vibrant civic society. He has got me right about the essential role of good public goods (and the extravagant claims on behalf of the market to be the supplier and sorter of all) but he’s wrong about how I view law and judges. Good Government? Good Citizens? is a cautionary tale regarding optimistic accounts of the capacity of law and of the judiciary to (re)mould society—no matter what ideology is on offer. True, at the very end of the book I do plead with judges, as citizens, to use the trust that the public reposes in them to underscore the critical importance of representative politics to civic society. But I do this to emphasize the limits of judicial power, not to promote fantasies about the capacity of courts to bring about progressive change. The forces against a vibrant civic society are growing ever stronger. No matter what their role, all those who believe in good public goods need to say so: loudly, clearly, immediately.

W.A. Bogart
Windsor, Ontario