Andrei Cherny offers a clear vision of the changes taking place within our political landsape and of the directions in which our next generation of leaders must be headed. Flying in the face of the current political climate, The Next Deal manages to provoke thought and inspire action without resorting to mere punditry or beanery. The book's message will resonate with readers of all political stripes. Cherny's work is to be chereshed, and should be considered a must-read, by the political professional and the informed citizen alike.

This book is a refreshing departure from the typical "generation X" fare of whimpering and simpering about the spiralling national dabt and budget deficits and those damned boomers. The author is a former aide in the Clinton Administration, but his past political engagements do not interfere with his clear-sightedness in viewing the current political scene.

Cherny believes that the U.S. is on the cusp of a political and economic realignment on the order of what happened in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Back then, the nation went from being an agrarian society of farmers and small businessmen to an industrial society of wage earners and assembly line workers. In political terms, Cherny says, this came to be reflected in the New Deal government of large bureaucratic agencies. Today, the trend towards bureacracy is being reversed by what Cherny calls "the Choice Generation" that will demand greater accountability, variety, responsiveness, and flexibility in public institutions. He believes that government needs to update itself to reflect changes going on in the e-conomy so that it can effectively protect the interests of the people. He excoriates "Treadmill Liberals" and "Blockhead Conservatives" who do not appreciate this.

Unlike many younger writers, Cherny has a light touch and wears his erudition gracefully. He glides effortlessly over the panorama of U.S. history and economic issues and weaves his thesis out of many disparate sources from Adam Smith to Frederick Winslow Taylor to Herbert Croly to modern political scientists. His balance and objectivity are also very good. His prose is crisp and clear.

It is too early to say that Cherny is the next Walter Lippmann or Herbert Croly, but this is an important contribution to the dialogue on the proper role of government in America.

To have a 21-year-old Gore speechwriter mature into a 25-year-old public policy book writer and then have that book enthusiastically trumpeted by a conservative former Speaker of the House is a moment of unique achievement. Let me be clear. While Andrei Cherny is a liberal, he has written one of the most thoughtful books about public policy in the information age to be produced by anyone of any ideological background or from any partisan belief. Cherny does a stunning job of placing the progressive movement in the context of the rise of the industrial corporation and makes a profound case that the rise of information technology that moves from mass production to intense personalization and choice that will profoundly change the relationship between government and citizens.

At one level these are not new ideas. Alvin and Heidi Toffler explained the general principles in 1979 in The Third wave. What makes Cherny's contribution so impressive is the degree to which he embeds the technological changes of today in the parallel ideas and experiences of 100 years ago. Just as the rise of the industrial corporation created the systems and the structures that could be translated into professional bureaucracy and into systems such as the city manager form of government, so the development of the automatic teller machine, the self serve gas station, the internet based personal reservation system for airlines and the personally directed 401k all spell the rise of a personally directed citizen process that will transform the process of governance.

I disagree deeply with some of Cherny's ideas, but I am in awe of his ability to take big concepts and embed them in American political history in a manner which will give them context and meaning for any citizen who wishes to study them.

I unequivocally recommend this book to any citizen who wants to know how we can improve our country.