The federal government is having increasing difficulty faithfully executing the laws, which is what Alexander Hamilton called “the true test” of a good government. This book diagnoses the symptoms, explains their general causes, and proposes ways to improve the effectiveness of the federal government. Employing Hamilton’s seven measures of an energetic federal service, Paul Light shows how the government is wanting in each measure.
After assessing the federal report card, Light offers a comprehensive agenda for reform, including new laws limiting the number of political appointees, reducing the layers of government management, reducing the size of government as its Baby Boom employees retire, revitalizing the federal career, and reducing the heavy outsourcing of federal work. Although there are many ways to fix each of the seven problems with government, only a comprehensive agenda will bring the kind of reform needed to reverse the overall erosion of the capacity to faithfully execute all the laws.
Paul C. Light is Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service at New York University.
Table of Contents
Foreword Paul A. Volcker vii
Introduction 1
1 For the Public Benefit 20
2 Clarity of Command 52
3 Posts of Honor 78
4 Vigor and Expedition 102
5 A Spirit of Service 131
6 Steadiness in Administration 163
7 Safety in the Executive 189
8 Reversing the Decline 212
Notes 241
Acknowledgments 263
Index 267
What People are Saying About This
Paul Light has made a major contribution to rethinking federal bureaucracy at a crucial time in its evolution. With the retirement of the baby boom bureaucrats there will be a greater opportunity to rethink and reshape the federal government than at any time since the New Deal. If it is done with the kind of thoughtfulness Light proposes it could profoundly improve the delivery of government services and the quality of the federal work force.
E. J. Dionne
Ever since Hurricane Katrina, we have bemoaned the costs of incompetent government. But Paul Light has done much more: he has focused his enormous energies and brilliant mind on exactly how to create a government that works well. That's why Light's voice is so important in our national debate, and why this is such an important book. Whatever your ideology, you need to pay attention to what Light says about how to achieve competence and even excellence in government. The next president needs to read this book, and so do the voters who have a right to expect something better in the coming years. E. J. Dionne, Jr., author of Why Americans Hate Politics and Souled Out
Donna Shalala
A brilliant and insightful analysis and action plan to make our government work. Bravo! --(Donna Shalala, Former Secretary of Health and Human Services and President of the University of Miami)
Newt Gingrich
Paul Light has made a major contribution to rethinking federal bureaucracy at a crucial time in its evolution. With the retirement of the baby boom bureaucrats there will be a greater opportunity to rethink and reshape the federal government than at any time since the New Deal. If it is done with the kind of thoughtfulness Light proposes it could profoundly improve the delivery of government services and the quality of the federal work force. --(Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the House)