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Bill Clinton's worldview has a serious but still almost wholly unappreciated intellectual provenance, with deep ties to two strands of social contract theory and an informed sensitivity to historical development. Yet Clinton forcefully articulated this worldview to the public only sporadically. The complexity and obscurity of his governing philosophy prevented most observers from understanding it. Inconsistent public articulation kept those who understood it from taking it seriously. Both phenomena fueled the misconception that Clinton lacked a consistent public philosophy. Clinton's inconsistent articulation of his governing philosophy was not random, but strategic. He emphasized contractarian themes at particularly advantageous junctures and subordinated these themes when he thought they would prevent the achievement of his near-term objectives.

By John Kane. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 277 pp. John Kane's ambitious and thought-provoking book, The Politics of Moral Capital, focuses on the nexus between moral judgments and [...]