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Author: Paul C. Light
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815720157
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264
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Book Description
This book addresses a seemingly simple question: Just how many people really work for the federal government? Official counts show a relatively small total of 1.9 million full-time civil servants, as of 1996. But, according to Paul Light, the true head count is nearly nine times higher than the official numbers, with about 17 million people actually providing the government with goods and services. Most are part of what Light calls the "shadow of government"—nonfederal employees working under federal contracts, grants, and mandates to state and local governments. In this book--the first that attempts to establish firm estimates of the shadow work force-- he explores the reasons why the official size of the federal government has remained so small while the shadow of government has grown so large. Light examines the political incentives that make the illusion of a small government so attractive, analyzes the tools used by officials to keep the official headcount small, and reveals how the appearance of smallness affects the management of government and the future of the public service. Finally, he points out ways the federal government can better manage the shadow work force it has built over the past half-century.
Author: Paul C. Light
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815720157
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Get Book
Book Description
This book addresses a seemingly simple question: Just how many people really work for the federal government? Official counts show a relatively small total of 1.9 million full-time civil servants, as of 1996. But, according to Paul Light, the true head count is nearly nine times higher than the official numbers, with about 17 million people actually providing the government with goods and services. Most are part of what Light calls the "shadow of government"—nonfederal employees working under federal contracts, grants, and mandates to state and local governments. In this book--the first that attempts to establish firm estimates of the shadow work force-- he explores the reasons why the official size of the federal government has remained so small while the shadow of government has grown so large. Light examines the political incentives that make the illusion of a small government so attractive, analyzes the tools used by officials to keep the official headcount small, and reveals how the appearance of smallness affects the management of government and the future of the public service. Finally, he points out ways the federal government can better manage the shadow work force it has built over the past half-century.
Author: Paul C. Light
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190851805
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
In his 1961 Farewell Address, President Eisenhower famously referred to the emergence of a "military-industrial complex" so powerful that it threatened to warp America's political institutions and economy. However, the military was not the only part of a blended government workforce that was growing by leaps and bounds. Over the next half century, the true size of the federal government expanded in almost every department and agency as it came to depend on 7-9 million federal, contract, and grant employees to faithfully execute the laws. In The Government-Industrial Complex, public management expert Paul Light not only traces the expansion of the federal government's workforce over the past few decades, but also explains why it has taken the shape that it has. In marked contrast to governments in other wealthy countries, America's relies heavily on contract and grant employees to deliver goods and services even as the number of federal employees has held steady for seventy years. Light traces the rise of this government-industrial complex and asks whether and how the nation can be sure that the right people are in the right jobs to assure maximum performance for the public good. To do this, he offers short histories of the roles of various presidents and the impacts of war and economic crisis on the changing size of government. He also highlights the Trump administration's early strategies on downsizing and deconstructing government. Light emphasizes that achieving the right balance between public and private responsibilities is the key to making government both more efficient and more responsive. Comprehensive and pointed, this is a landmark account of the true nature and scope of national governance in the United States.
Author: Paul Charles Light
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780190909598
Category : POLITICAL SCIENCE
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
The Government-Industrial Complex explores the recent history and impact of the federal government's blended workforce of federal, contract, and grant employees. Drawing upon Dwight D. Eisenhower's description of the military-industrial complex, government-reform expert Paul Light argues that the federal government now depends on seven-nine million full-time-equivalent government-industry employees. Light's analysis examines changes in the size of the government-industrial complex, explains the federal government's dependence on contract and grant employees, and explores potential reforms to protect the nation against what Eisenhower called the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power. Light chronicles the role of hiring caps, cuts, and freezes in promoting the use of contract and grant employees and shows the impact of war and peace on the changing size of government. Light offers short histories of the role that Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama played in the changing number and distribution of the federal government’s federal, contract, and grant employees. Light also discusses the Trump administration’s early strategies on downsizing and deconstructing government while describing the demographic, bureaucratic, and political problems that explain the federal government’s dependence on contract and grant employees. He then describes a sorting system for assuring that the right employees are in the right jobs to assure the greatest value and accountability, and he concludes with a description of the "next gen" public service needed to achieve the more perfect union and blessings of liberty promised in the Constitution's preamble.
Author: Paul C. Light
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296
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Book Description
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.
Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821397281
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 697
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Book Description
"This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions"--T.p. verso.
Author: Alexander Hamilton
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1528785878
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 455
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Book Description
Classic Books Library presents this brand new edition of “The Federalist Papers”, a collection of separate essays and articles compiled in 1788 by Alexander Hamilton. Following the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776, the governing doctrines and policies of the States lacked cohesion. “The Federalist”, as it was previously known, was constructed by American statesman Alexander Hamilton, and was intended to catalyse the ratification of the United States Constitution. Hamilton recruited fellow statesmen James Madison Jr., and John Jay to write papers for the compendium, and the three are known as some of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Alexander Hamilton (c. 1755–1804) was an American lawyer, journalist and highly influential government official. He also served as a Senior Officer in the Army between 1799-1800 and founded the Federalist Party, the system that governed the nation’s finances. His contributions to the Constitution and leadership made a significant and lasting impact on the early development of the nation of the United States.
Author: Paul Charles Light
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815752509
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217
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Book Description
Light presents a revealing look at how thick the bureaucracy really is, how and why thickening occurs, what difference it might make, and what can be done to both reverse the process and keep the thickening from growing back.
Author: Paul C. Light
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674034783
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289
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Book Description
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.
Author: Paul C. Light
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815716370
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252
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Book Description
In an era of promises to create smaller, more limited government, Americans often forget that the federal government has amassed an extraordinary record of successes over the past half century. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, it helped rebuild Europe after World War II, conquered polio and other life-threatening diseases, faced down communism, attacked racial discrimination, reduced poverty among the elderly, and put men on the moon. In Government's Greatest Achievements, Paul C. Light explores the federal government's most successful accomplishments over the previous five decades and anticipates the most significant challenges of the next half century. While some successes have come through major legislation such as the 1965 Medicare Act, or large-scale efforts like the Apollo space program, most have been achieved through collections of smaller, often unheralded statutes. Drawing on survey responses from 230 historians and 220 political scientists at colleges and universities nationwide, Light ranks and summarizes the fifty greatest government achievements from 1944 to 1999. The achievements were ranked based on difficulty, importance, and degree of success. Through a series of twenty vignettes, he paints a vivid picture of the most intense government efforts to improve the quality of life both at home and abroad—from enhancing health care and workplace safety, to expanding home ownership, to improving education, to protecting endangered species, to strengthening the national defense. The book also examines how Americans perceive government's greatest achievements, and reveals what they consider to be its most significant failures. America is now calling on the government to resolve another complex, difficult problem: the defeat of terrorism. Light concludes by discussing this enormous task, as well as government's other greatest priorities for the next fifty years.
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Civil service
Languages : en
Pages : 188
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Book Description
