Television: The Limits of Deregulation. By Lori A. Brainard. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003. 198p. $49.95.

In many respects, Lori Brainard's case study of the “incremental, incomplete, and highly ambiguous” deregulation of television from the midseventies through the midnineties suffers from false advertising. Rather than a mere case study in a field highly populated by such analyses, it is an ambitious attempt to critically assess competing midlevel theories of regulatory change and macrolevel determinants of policy change. As Alexander George has observed, case studies are extremely valuable, not because they test theories but because they clarify, offer critical insight into, and generate hypotheses for future research on those theories. Viewed from this perspective, Brainard's book provides a strong basis for deeper examinations of change in the regulatory and the broader policy process.