These changing perspectives have – with, as we will discuss later, substantial national variation – been embraced by elected officials, public bureaucrats and social scientists alike. This is not to suggest that these fairly radical ideas enjoyed immediate support from all political camps and the public bureaucracy as a whole. What does seem to be clear, however, is that for many of these officials the new way of looking at the role of government provided a formula which could help resolve several acute problems. First, it helped redefine the role of elected officials. In light of the growing discontent with and disbelief in politicians throughout the western world this seemed to be an urgent task. In particular, the new ideas, emphasizing action over words and results over commitments and promises, suggest that government believes itself to be capable of responding to the zeitgeist of the 1980s and 1990s, heralding the market, individualism and free enterprise.