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literature. The length is also increased bj the successive models technique, whereby particular variables in an original model are altered and the conclusions reexamined. This approach is somewhat trying on the patience at times, and most of the significant material in the book can be understood without the tedious review of all of the cases. The quality of writing is good, if not exciting, and much superior to that in some of Musgrave’s analytical articles. He lacks the touch of Henry Simons (3), but avoids the obscurity of Earl Rolph (4) and the precise dullness of Pigou. Musgrave is not primarily an innovator, as Vickrey (5), but a synthesizer; he is not an extremist in the fashion of Simons, or a polemicist as Kaldor in The Expenditure Tax (G); or an attaclier of established doctrine, as Buchanan (7) or Rolph. By contrast, he is inclined to give full measure of credit to others who have worked in the field, even when he strongly disagrees with their conclusions. He makes no claim that his findings are revolutionary. The primary contribution arises from the exhaustiveness in the treatment of the subject matter, and the emphasis on the distinctiveness yet interrelationship of the various primary functions of government.
     The study is divided into four parts. The first provides a general framework fort the presentation of the theory of government economy, while the second develops the principles relating to optimum expenditures and tax levels of government in terms of the assumed goals, a task involving primarily the application of welfare theory to budget determination. Relatively little attention is given to questions of the precise features of various taxes necessary to meet the requirements, the aspect of taxation most fully discussed in other studies, such as Vickrey’s Agenda for Progressive Taxation. The third section is devoted to an analysis of economic effects and incidence of budget policy, in terms of both partial and general equilibrium theory. The final section is concerned with fiscal policy (including debt management )in terms of both comparative statics and dynamic models. Musgrave emphasizes the unsuitability of the traditional term « public finance » for the subject matter typically
     (3)       Personal Income Taxation (Chicago: Universitv of Chicago Press, 1938).
     (4)       The Theory of Fiscal Economics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1954).
     (5) Agenda for Progressive Taxation (New York: Ronald, 1947).
     (6) London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1955.
     (7) Public Principles of Public Debt (Homewood, 111., Irwin, 1958).