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Bureaucrats and Politicians in Western Democracies
In uneasy partnership at the helm of the modern state stand elected party politicians and professional bureaucrats. This book is the first comprehensive comparison of these two powerful elites. In seven countries--the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, Italy, and the Netherlands--researchers questioned 700 bureaucrats and 6OO politicians in an effort to understand how their aims, attitudes, and ambitions differ within cultural settings. One of the authors' most significant findings is that the worlds of these two elites overlap much more in the United States than in Europe. But throughout the West bureaucrats and politicians each wear special blinders and each have special virtues. In a well-ordered polity, the authors conclude, politicians articulate society's dreams and bureaucrats bring them gingerly to earth.
Keeping a Watchful Eye
Congressional oversight activity has increased dramatically since the early 1970s. Congressional committees now spend more of their time holding hearings to review the activities of federal agencies, and committee staff members are busy collecting information about what goes on during program implementation. This book examines the reasons behind the surprising growth of congressional oversight. Using original data collected for this project, Joel D. Aberbach documents the increase in oversight activity and links it to changes in the political environment. He explores the political purposes served by oversight, the techniques Congress uses to uncover information about the activities of the federal bureaucracy, and the reasons why topics get on the oversight agenda. He concludes that even though the U.S. government system was not designed with a large administrative sector in mind, its ability to expose bureaucratic behavior to public scrutiny is impressive, and the Congress plays a vital role in this endeavor.
The Executive Branch
Presents a collection of essay that provide an examination of the Executive branch in American government, explaining how the Constitution created the executive branch and discusses how the executive interacts with the other two branches of government at the federal and state level.
In the Web of Politics
" Most people think of governmental bureaucracy as a dull subject. Yet for thirty years the American federal executive has been awash in political controversy. From George Wallace's attacks on ""pointy headed bureaucrats,"" to Richard Nixon's ""responsiveness program,"" to the efforts of Al Gore and Bill Clinton to ""reinvent government,"" the people who administer the American state have stood uncomfortably in the spotlight, caught in a web of politics. This book covers the turmoil and controversy swirling around the bureaucracy since 1970, when the Nixon administration tried to tighten its control over the executive branch. Drawing on interviews conducted over the past three decades, Joel ...
Understanding Contemporary American Conservatism
Contemporary American conservatism – a mélange of ideas, people, and organizations – is difficult to define; even conservatives themselves are unable to agree about its essential meaning. Yet the conservative movement is well financed, exerts strong influence in the Republican Party, inspires followers throughout the land, and has spawned a network of think tanks and media outlets that are the envy of its competitors. It is a powerful political force with which to be reckoned. This book examines how that has come about and what contemporary conservatism signifies for US politics and policy. It looks at the recent history of conservatism in America as well as its antecedents in the UK, traces changes over time using American National Election Study data from 1972 to the present in what it means when people say they are conservatives, and assesses the prospects for American conservatism, both in the near term electoral context and over the longer term as well.
The Future of Merit
"Passage of the Civil Service Reform Act was controversial, and there is still controversy over its effectiveness. A book of this sort will be well received and anxiously read by specialists in public administration, public policy, and public personnel administration."-H. George Frederickson, University of Kansas The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 was the most far reaching reform of the federal government personnel system since the merit system was created in 1883. The Future of Merit reviews the aims and rates the accomplishments of the 1978 law and assesses the status of the civil service. How has it held up in the light of the National Performance Review? What will become of it in a glo...
Literature and Poverty
Literature and Poverty offers an engaging overview of changes in literary perceptions of poverty and the poor. Part I of the book, from the Hebrew Bible to the French Revolution, provides essential background information. It introduces the Scriptural ideal of the ‘holy poor’ and the process by which biblical love of the poor came to be contested and undermined in European legislation and public opinion as capitalism grew and the state took over from the Church; Part II, from the French Revolution to World War II, shows how post-1789 problems of industrialization, population growth, war, and urbanization came to dominate much European literature, as poverty and the poor became central con...
Jerusalem
Jerusalem in the Second Temple period experienced dramatic growth as it achieved unprecedented political, religious, and spiritual prominence. Lee Levine traces the development of Jerusalem during this time -- through its urban, demographic, topographical, and archaeological features, its political regimes, public institutions, and its cultural and religious life.
Managing the Presidency
Arguing that too many studies focus on president's personalities, and not their relationships with advisers and the machinery of the office, Campbell describes the institutional development of the presidency and assesses the Carter and Regan administrations within a historical context. Interviews with senior members of the White House staff and other high-ranking officials add color and depth to his study.
The Other Elites
Contains 13 contributions, divided into four sections: theoretical and comparative perspectives on women as political executives; institutional perspectives on women as officeholders in the executive branch; institutional perspectives on the President, Congress, and the Courts; and policy and participations issues relating to women as executive activists and as citizens. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
