Escaping Jurassic Government

Escaping Jurassic Government PDF Author: Donald F. Kettl
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815728026
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 184

Book Description
Why big government is not the problem. The Progressive government movement, founded on support from Republicans and Democrats alike, reined in corporate trusts and improved the lives of sweatshop workers. It created modern government, from the Federal Reserve to the nation’s budgetary and civil service policies, and most of the programs on which we depend. Ask Americans today and they will tell you that our government has hit a wall of low performance and high distrust, with huge implications for governance in the country. Instead of a focus on government effectiveness, the movement that spawned the idea of government for the people has become known for creating a big government disconnected from citizens. Donald F. Kettl finds that both political parties have contributed to the decline of the Progressive ideal of a commitment to competence. They have both fed gridlock and created a government that does not work the way citizens expect and deserve. Kettl argues for a rebirth of the original Progressive spirit, not in pursuit of bigger government but with a bipartisan dedication to better government, one that works on behalf of all citizens and that delivers services effectively. He outlines the problems in today’s government, including political pressures, proxy tools, and managerial failures. Escaping Jurassic Government details the strategies, evidence, and people that can strengthen governmental effectiveness and shut down gridlock.

Escaping Jurassic Government

Escaping Jurassic Government PDF Author: Donald F. Kettl
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815728115
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Book Description
Why big government is not the problem. The Progressive government movement, founded on support from Republicans and Democrats alike, reined in corporate trusts and improved the lives of sweatshop workers. It created modern government, from the Federal Reserve to the nation’s budgetary and civil service policies, and most of the programs on which we depend. Ask Americans today and they will tell you that our government has hit a wall of low performance and high distrust, with huge implications for governance in the country. Instead of a focus on government effectiveness, the movement that spawned the idea of government for the people has become known for creating a big government disconnected from citizens. Donald F. Kettl finds that both political parties have contributed to the decline of the Progressive ideal of a commitment to competence. They have both fed gridlock and created a government that does not work the way citizens expect and deserve. Kettl argues for a rebirth of the original Progressive spirit, not in pursuit of bigger government but with a bipartisan dedication to better government, one that works on behalf of all citizens and that delivers services effectively. He outlines the problems in today’s government, including political pressures, proxy tools, and managerial failures. Escaping Jurassic Government details the strategies, evidence, and people that can strengthen governmental effectiveness and shut down gridlock.

The Government-Industrial Complex

The Government-Industrial Complex PDF Author: Paul Charles Light
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190851791
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
The Government-Industrial Complex analyzes the federal government's blended workforce of 9 million civil service, contract, and grant employees. Noted Government reform expert Paul Light explores the history of this blended workforce, explains its rise from Reagan to Trump, and outlines a process for promoting accountability across the government-industrial divide.

Can Governments Earn Our Trust?

Can Governments Earn Our Trust? PDF Author: Donald F. Kettl
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509522492
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 144

Book Description
Some analysts have called distrust the biggest governmental crisis of our time. It is unquestionably a huge problem, undermining confidence in our elected institutions, shrinking social capital, slowing innovation, and raising existential questions for democratic government itself. What’s behind the rising distrust in democracies around the world and can we do anything about it? In this lively and thought-provoking essay, Donald F. Kettl, a leading scholar of public policy and management, investigates the deep historical roots of distrust in government, exploring its effects on the social contract between citizens and their elected representatives. Most importantly, the book examines the strategies that present-day governments can follow to earn back our trust, so that the officials we elect can govern more effectively on our behalf.

The Three Ages of Government

The Three Ages of Government PDF Author: Jos C.N. Raadschelders
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472038540
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Book Description
It is only in the last 250 years that ordinary people (in some parts of the world) have become citizens rather than subjects. This change happened in a very short period, between 1780 and 1820, a result of the foundations of democracy laid in the age of revolutions. A century later local governments embraced this shift due to rapid industrialization, urbanization, and population growth. During the twentieth century, all democratic governments began to perform a range of tasks, functions, and services that had no historical precedent. In the thirty years following the Second World War, Western democracies created welfare states that, for the first time in history, significantly reduced the gap between the wealthy and everyone else. Many of the reforms of that postwar period have been since rolled back because of the belief that government should be more like a business. Jos C.N. Raadschelders provides the information that all citizens should have about their connections to government, why there is a government, what it does, how it does it, and why we can no longer do without it. The Three Ages of Government rises above stereotypical thinking to show the centrality of government in human life.

Financial Sustainability and Intergenerational Equity in Local Governments

Financial Sustainability and Intergenerational Equity in Local Governments PDF Author: Rodríguez Bolívar, Manuel Pedro
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1522537147
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 343

Book Description
Due to the mortgage crisis of 2008, laws aimed at achieving budgetary and financial stability were enacted. The concept of ?nancial sustainability has been linked to the need of rendering public services without compromising the ability to do so in the future. Financial Sustainability and Intergenerational Equity in Local Governments is a critical scholarly resource that analyzes the financial sustainability of local governments with the aim of ensuring equality and intergenerational equity. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as intergenerational equity, public policies, and sustainability management, this book is geared towards government officials, managers, academicians, practitioners, students, and researchers seeking current research on identifying public policies to ensure financial balance.

Sharing Power

Sharing Power PDF Author: Donald F. Kettl
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815720065
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
In the flush of enthusiasm to make government work better, reformers from both left and right have urged government to turn as many functions as possible over to the private sector and to allow market competition instill efficiency and choice. In fact, government has been doing just this for years: every major policy initiative launched since World War II has been managed by public-private partnerships. Yet such privatization has not solved government's problems. While there have been some positive results, thee has been far less success than advocates of market competition have promised. In a searching examination of why the "competition prescription" has not worked well, Donald F. Kettl finds that government has largely been a poor judge of private markets. Because government rarely operates in truly competitive markets contracting out has not so much solved the problems of inefficiency, but has aggravated them. Government has often not proved to be an intelligent consumer of the goods and services it has purchased. Kettl provides specific recommendations as to how government can become a "smart buyer," knowing what it wants and judging better what it has bought. Through detailed case studies, Kettl shows that as market imperfections increase, so do problems in governance and management. He examines the A-76 program for buying goods and services, the FTS-2000 telecommunications system, the Superfund program, the Department of Energy's production of nuclear weapons, and contracting out by state and local governments. He argues that government must be more aggressive in managing contracts if it is to build successful partnerships with outside contractors. Kettl maintains that the answer is not more government, but a smarter one, which requires strong political leadership to refocus the bureaucracy's mission and to change the bureaucratic culture.

Strategies for Governing

Strategies for Governing PDF Author: Alasdair Roberts
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501745603
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
With the fields of public administration and public management suffering a crisis of relevance, Alasdair Roberts offers a provocative assessment of their shortfalls. The two fields, he finds, no longer address urgent questions of governance in a turbulent and dangerous world. Strategies for Governing offers a new path forward for research, teaching, and practice. Leaders of states, Roberts writes, are constantly reinventing strategies for governing. Experts in public administration must give advice on the design as well as execution of strategies that effective, robust, and principled. Strategies for Governing challenges us to reinvigorate public administration and public management, preparing the fields for the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Public Service and Good Governance for the Twenty-First Century

Public Service and Good Governance for the Twenty-First Century PDF Author: James L. Perry
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812296915
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Book Description
Expert analysis of American governance challenges and recommendations for reform Two big ideas serve as the catalyst for the essays collected in this book. The first is the state of governance in the United States, which Americans variously perceive as broken, frustrating, and unresponsive. Editor James Perry observes in his Introduction that this perception is rooted in three simultaneous developments: government's failure to perform basic tasks that once were taken for granted, an accelerating pace of change that quickly makes past standards of performance antiquated, and a dearth of intellectual capital that generate the capacity to bridge the gulf between expectations and performance. The second idea hearkens back to the Progressive era, when Americans revealed themselves to be committed to better administration of their government at all levels—federal, state, and local. These two ideas—the diminishing capacity for effective governance and Americans' expectations for reform—are veering in opposite directions. Contributors to Public Service and Good Governance for the Twenty-First Century explore these central ideas by addressing such questions as: what is the state of government today? Can future disruptions of governance and public service be anticipated? What forms of government will emerge from the past and what institutions and structures will be needed to meet future challenges? And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, what knowledge, skills, and abilities will need to be fostered for tomorrow's civil servants to lead and execute effectively? Public Service and Good Governance for the Twenty-First Century offers recommendations for bending the trajectories of governance capacity and reform expectations toward convergence, including reversing the trend of administrative disinvestment, developing talent for public leadership through higher education, creating a federal civil service to meet future needs, and rebuilding bipartisanship so that the sweeping changes needed to restore good government become possible. Contributors: Sheila Bair, William W. Bradley, John J. DiIulio, Jr., Angela Evans, Francis Fukuyama, Donald F. Kettl, Ramayya Krishnan, Paul C. Light, Shelley Metzenbaum, Norman J. Ornstein, James L. Perry, Norma M. Riccucci, Paul R. Verkuil, Paul A. Volcker.

Politics of the Administrative Process

Politics of the Administrative Process PDF Author: Donald F. Kettl
Publisher: CQ Press
ISBN: 1506357113
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 747

Book Description
Politics of the Administrative Process shows how efficient public administration requires a delicate balance—the bureaucracy must be powerful enough to be effective, but also accountable to elected officials and citizens. Author Don Kettl gives students a realistic, relevant, and well-researched view of the field in this reader–friendly best seller. With its engaging vignettes, rich examples and a unique focus on policymaking and politics, the Seventh Edition continues its strong emphasis on politics, accountability, and performance. This new edition has been thoroughly updated with new scholarship, data, events, and case studies, giving students multiple opportunities to apply ideas and analysis as they read.