The American Ideology" explicates and criticizes two notions of reason in society: efficiency and the concept of "the reasonable." Despite their considerable appeal, these notions nowadays underwrite an orientation towards public policy that is both inadequate and beneficial to elite interests, an orientation that constitutes a distinct "American Ideology." To make this case, Levine traces the history of the concept of efficiency, from Hobbes, through the utilitarian tradition, to contemporary economic and philosophical paradigms, and examines the strengths and weaknesses of the democratic theory implicit in John Rawls's pioneering work on justice and political legitimacy.