JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Foreign Policy. President Bill Clinton has proclaimed that the age of big government is over. He may be right. Certainly American confidence in government has declined. In 1964, three-quarters of the American public said that they trusted the federal government to do the right thing most of the time. In recent years, depending on the polls, only one-quarter to one-third do. The numbers are only slightly better for state and local government.The United States is not alone. In fact, at a time when the United States and the West are celebrating victory in the Cold War, confidence in many Western governments seems to be declining. In a pair of polls taken in 11 European countries in 1981 and 1990, public confidence in government institutions declined in six (Belgium, France, Italy, Norway, Spain, and Sweden), was mixed in four (Germany, Great Britain, Iceland, and the Netherlands), and rose in Denmark. Polls in Canada show a decline similar to that in the United States. In Japan, polls show a low regard for politicians throughout the postwar period; more recently, there has been a decline in confidence in the bureaucracy as well. In a survey of 43 countries in 1981 and 1990, political scientist Ronald Inglehart found that people in low-income societies accept governmental authority more readily than do citizens of wealthier societies.We are not experiencing the alleged "crisis of democracy" popularized in the 1970s. If you ask Americans what is the best place in the world to live, 80 percent say the United States. If you ask them whether they like J OS E PH S. N Y E, J R., is dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.