The Fourth Revolution

Joe Scarborough, “Morning Joe”:
“This is an important book. This book changes everything.”

Tyler Cowan, Marginal Revolution:
“It is probably the best current manifesto on the proper roles for market and state….  This book is also the single best statement of the thesis that these days government simply is not working very well, and that such an insight is recognized by many voters better than by many intellectuals. Definitely recommended.”

The Daily Mail (UK):
“Splendid.”

The Telegraph:
“Superb…. Micklethwait and Wooldridge’s must-read manifesto is a plea for more reform, inspired this time by successful reforms in other countries and the harnessing of the digital revolution.”

Seattle Times:
“[The authors] offer thoughtful proposals…. a useful look at America from the outside in.”

Times of London:
“The basic argument of this well-written, intelligent book is twofold. First reform [of the state] is essential. Second, reform is possible because it is happening all over the world and because new technology is available. By the end of reading The Fourth Revolution it is hard to deny either of these points.”

Kirkus Reviews:
“A different, provocative view of the challenge emerging in Asia.”

Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post American World:
“This is a book with an important message. It is also one that brims with intelligence, erudition, and—best of all—common sense. I found myself nodding in agreement on almost every page.”

Walter Russell Mead:
“This brilliant and courageous book is also a gripping read. At a time when most politicians and pundits on the left and the right look back to past golden ages, the Economist’s John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge dare to ask what must be done to make democracy work again. Their answers point beyond the dull nostrums of conventional politics toward new ideas and reforms that could renew the democratic systems in both the US and Europe. This is a landmark study of a vital subject, told with great verve and dash, and it is a book that no one who cares about the future of politics can afford to miss.”

Financial Times
“[The Fourth Revolution’s] case is elegantly made, with big-picture philosophy and political economy punctuated by colourful detours into the world’s rising economies.”

David Brooks, The New York Times
“Micklethwait and Wooldridge do an outstanding job of describing Asia’s modernizing autocracies. In some ways, these governments look more progressive than the Western model; in some ways, more conservative.”

Michael Ignatieff, The New York Review of Books
“The Fourth Revolution has.…an insatiable curiosity and an enthusiasm for reform.”

The Wall Street Journal
“This book’s message is simple but severe: If the state promises too much to too many, cynicism grows, and democracy is damaged.”