Valuing Bureaucracy

To be effective, government must be run by professional managers. When decisions that should be taken by government officials are delegated to private contractors without adequate oversight, the public interest is jeopardized. Verkuil uses his inside perspectives on government performance and accountability to examine the tendencies at both the federal and state levels to 'deprofessionalize' government. Viewing the turn to contractors and private sector solutions in ideological and functional terms, he acknowledges that the problem cannot be solved without meaningful civil service reforms that make it easier to hire, incent and, where necessary, fire career employees and officials. The indispensable goal is to revitalize bureaucracy so it can continue to competently deliver essential services. By highlighting the leadership that already exists in the career ranks, Verkuil senses a willingness, or even eagerness, to make government, like America, great again.

Author: Paul R. Verkuil
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 05/09/2017
Pages: 180
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.58lbs
Size: 9.12h x 6.39w x 0.49d
ISBN: 9781316629666

Review Citation(s):
Choice 05/01/2018

About the Author
Verkuil, Paul R.: - Paul R. Verkuil is President Emeritus of the College of William and Mary, Virginia, and served as Dean of both Cardozo School of Law, New York and Tulane University Law School, Louisiana. He served five years in the Obama administration as Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the US. He is the author of Outsourcing Sovereignty (Cambridge, 2007).