In the middle 1990s, Grogan (social service administration, U. of Chicago) and Gusmano (health policy and management, Columbia U.) began investigating how state governments were trying to improve health care for the poor in the US. After 18 months of research, they had to rethink the project. It turns out that the real issue they needed to address was the same one that purported democracies confront perpetually and somehow never get closer to solving: how to shape good social welfare policy without jeopardizing political inequality. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)