Seven at a Blow

classification, enlightening in itself, serves the author as a framework in. which to organize his book. He thus deals with committees according to what they do rather than according to who appoints them or where they are found. The result is sometimes confusing to the reader, who must follow him in a quick leap from a local government committee to a Royal Commission. But doubtless a different method would have produced similar difficulties, and this one has the advantage of emphasizing the job the committees are doing. The virtue of a plan often becomes the measure of its own faults.

The book employs another important analytical tool as well. Mr. Wheare has identified seven functions performed by persons in and around government committees, or as he puts it, “seven characters in committee work”: the chairman, the secretary, the official, the expert, the layman, the party man and the interested party. Most committees, whatever they do, find a need and a place for each of these, though one man may, of course, combine in himself more than one function. By identifying his characters and assessing their work and importance in each of his six kinds of committees, Mr. Wheare covers his topic with a kind of methodological cross-hatching. He displays great perceptiveness at every point, and conveys a clear understanding of a complex development in modern government.

WL

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William S. Livingston

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classification, enlightening in itself, serves the author as a framework in. which to organize his book. He thus deals with committees according to what they do rather than according to who appoints them or where they are found. The result is sometimes confusing to the reader, who must follow him in a quick leap from a local government committee to a Royal Commission. But doubtless a different method would have produced similar difficulties, and this one has the advantage of emphasizing the job the committees are doing. The virtue of a plan often becomes the measure of its own faults.

The book employs another important analytical tool as well. Mr. Wheare has identified seven functions performed by persons in and around government committees, or as he puts it, “seven characters in committee work”: the chairman, the secretary, the official, the expert, the layman, the party man and the interested party. Most committees, whatever they do, find a need and a place for each of these, though one man may, of course, combine in himself more than one function. By identifying his characters and assessing their work and importance in each of his six kinds of committees, Mr. Wheare covers his topic with a kind of methodological cross-hatching. He displays great perceptiveness at every point, and conveys a clear understanding of a complex development in modern government.