Industry Profiles - General & Miscellaneous, U.S. Politics & Government - 1945 - 1989, U.S. Politics & Government - 1945 to Present, U.S. Politics - Public Affairs & Administration
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Overview
Paul Light explains that Congress and the presidency have never decided whether they trust government and its employees to do their jobs well, and so they have moved back and forth over the decades between four reform philosophies: scientific management, war on waste, watchful eye, and liberation management. These four philosophies, argues Light, operate with different goals, implementation strategies, and impacts. Yet reform initiatives draw on one or another of them almost at random, often canceling out the potential benefits of a particular statute by passing a contradictory statute soon afterward. Light shows that as the public has become increasingly distrustful of government, the reform agenda has favored the war on waste and watchful eye. He analyzes the consequences of these changes for the overall performance of government and offers policy recommendations for future reform approaches.Editorials
B. Guy Peters
This is an interesting but also somewhat maddening book... the most maddening part of the book is that there is little or nothing done to explain or justify the analysis that is presented... the other maddening aspect of this work is its parochialism.... In summary, Light has helped advance the understanding of administrative reform in the United States, but only part of the way. What we do not have is any compelling explanation of the patterns observed or any way of knowing how the patterns were identified.Β Political Science Quarterly
Book Details
Published
June 2, 1997
Publisher
New Haven : Yale University Press, c1997.
Pages
304
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780300069877