GOVERNMENTS, it is often said, are too big to solve the small problems of life and too small to solve the big ones. This is only mildly worrisome when it comes to the small problems, which might be better tackled by communities or individuals. But what about the big problems? Many of them appear to be getting bigger, with governments less and less able to deal with them.
This is surely true where science, medicine and technology are concerned. SARS, AIDS, cybercrime and climate change are just some of the recent issues that individual nations cannot handle on their own.…
