The chapters in this anthology combine discussion of two currently hot' topics in public administration--privatization and entrepreneurship. . . . Perhaps the most attractive aspect of this book is that it is not merely an unbridled emotional paean to privatization and entrepreneurship but an objective introduction to these issues. The editor selects an array of essays that address not only theory and practice but also the pragmatic issues and problems associated with implementing these new policy initiatives. This book would be a welcome addition to libraries wishing to remain current with the expanding literature on privatization and entrepreneurship. "Choice"

Privatization encompasses the many ways in which the private sector assumes functions that were previously the province of government. These may range from the sale of state enterprises to contracts with private firms to provide governmental services. In each case, services which were once subsidized to some extent by the government are instead offered by the private sector at prices reflecting their actual cost. This collection of original essays by internationally recognized scholars in economics, government, and management, provides a readable, state of the art discussion of the promises and problems of privatization. In addition to synthesizing current data and experiences in the field of private entrepreneurship, this collection of articles breaks new ground by suggesting innovative areas for private activity in the public sector.

The conventional wisdom has it that a balanced budget is the height of economic rationality, that social security should be privatized, and that most adult welfare recipients could and should get jobs. All our social and economic problems, we are told, are due to too much government; if we only left the American free enterprise system alone, the free market would heal all that ails our society and lead to lasting prosperity. Challenging these widespread stereotypes and myths, this book starts with the fundamental theory underlying capitalist ideology, showing that even in theory an unfettered free market cannot deal effectively with the many needs of a modern economy. Our society has many social goals to which the great majority subscribe-goals such as sustained full employment, universal health care, and quality education for all. The free market will not, the author argues, bring us quality education for every American child, affordable universal health care, Social Security for the elderly, assistance for the poor, or protection of the environment. Only an active, participant government can affect positive change in such areas of social concern.

Five presidents (Eisenhower, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and Obama) have been elected to and served a second term. Seemingly free from electoral pressure, each president has taken a unique approach to their second term, and the book seeks to unpack the rationale behind their decisions and actions in their final years of power.

Sims and the contributors to this challenging new volume maintain that public sector organizations must radically reinvent themselves, if they are to survive and succeed in their missions: to provide quality service to their clients at a cost taxpayers can afford (or are willing to pay). They offer a firsthand look at how change occurs at all levels of government, and from this and other experiences they lay out strategies and tools that others in government can use quickly and with good results in their own public organizations. However, Sims and his panel of experts also note that not everything in organizational change will produce positive benefits; some results will be negative, and these too must be understood and dealt with. By compiling the viewpoints, advice, experiences, recommendations of public managers themselves, plus consultants, academics, and citizens who benefit from government (and are often its harshest critics), Sims gives readers a solid, realistic insight into the problems of today's public agencies, and workable advice on how to solve them.

"Accountability and Radical Change in Public Organizations" examines the current government and reinvention initiative occurring in public organizations at the local, county, state, federal and international levels. The book highlights the importance of understanding that change in government will continue to be a way of life for public managers, thus requiring an ongoing analysis of those forces driving change and the need to increase our understanding of why certain change efforts work and others fail miserably in government. The contributors to this volume emphasize that while reinvention, accountability, and change are serious initiatives that public managers must confront they must take caution and learn from each others' experiences.

This is the first in-depth analysis of the impact of Italian unification on the hitherto isolated communities of rural Sicily. Traditional explanations of Sicily's instability depict a society trapped by a feudal past. Lucy Riall finds instead that many areas of the island were experiencing a period of rapid modernization, as local government increased their organizational efforts. Beginning with the period prior to the revolution of 1860, Dr Riall shows why successive attempts at political reform failed, and analyses the effects of this failure. She describes the bitter and violent conflict between rival elites and the mounting tide of peasant unrest which together threatened the status quo within the isolated communities of the Sicilian interior. Through an examination of the problems of local government - tax collection, conscription, the organization of policing - and of attempts to suppress peasant disturbances and control crime, she shows that the modernization of the Sicilian countryside both undermined the control of the central government and made the countryside itself more unstable.

Considered an irredeemably flawed and catastrophic president during the Depression era, Herbert Hoover has been studied more objectively by postwar historians, with revisionist scholarship culminating in his rehabilitation as a practitioner of one variety of progressivism. Even Hoover's sharpest critics recognize many of his once unheeded accomplishments. This extensive bibliography, including more than 2600 entries, provides access to an astronomical amount of Hoover-related materials attesting to extraordinary public service and longevity. Selective in approach, the volume cites sources depicting the continuum of contemporary and historical viewpoints and includes all key writings in Hoover historiography. Following a brief introduction and chronology of Hoover's life, the work begins with chapters covering manuscript and archival sources, writings of Herbert Hoover, and biographical publications. Chapters 4 and 5 are devoted to his early years and to his mature years prior to his election. The Presidential election of 1928 is covered in chapter 6; chapter 7 cites sources on the Hoover Administration; and chapter 8 covers the election of 1932. Hoover's administration associates are covered in chapter 9, and his post-presidential years covered in chapter 10. Concluding chapters are devoted to Hoover's philosophy, the personal lives of the Hoovers, historiographical materials, and iconography of the Hoovers. The work also includes a section on periodicals and author and subject indexes.

The only apparent consensus about the Nixon Presidency is that his accomplishments in the foreign policy area far outshadowed those in the domestic arena. The advances for which he was responsible--in particular, the opening to China--brought the most significant improvement in foreign relations among the great powers in decades. The Nixon diplomacy worked, while many of his domestic programs failed. This was true, the editors of this Hofstra-sponsored volume maintain, because there was more of a sense of realism and caution in his dealings with foreign governments and a willingness to compromise and accommodate their interests--a tolerance he often lacked in the domestic area.

This volume outlines the main components of the Nixon foreign policy, beginning with the significant effort to bring China into the world community. The manner in which the Vietnam war was ended is examined, as are the evolution of American policy in the Middle East and the efforts at detente. With essays and observations from scholars and participants in the making of that policy, this volume is significant reading for all students of American foreign policy and the presidency.

The 2014 midterm election was one of the most significant in recent memory, with a decisive turning of the tables in favor of Republicans. With a now-Republican-controlled Senate and House at odds with a Democratic president with only two years left in office, the fault lines within and between both parties have never been more tenuous. In this book, prominent elections scholar and political commentator Larry J. Sabato brings together respected journalists and experts from across the political spectrum to examine every facet of the midterm election results and the implications for the 2016 election cycle. In frank, accessible prose, each author offers insight that goes beyond the headlines to analyze what the midterm results mean and what is at stake in the coming presidential race. Contributing authors joining Larry Sabato with chapters in the book include: Professor Alan Abramovitz of Emory University; Mark Blumenthal of Huffington Post; Jamelle Bouie of Slate; Rhodes Cook, formerly of Congressional Quarterly; Robert Costa of the Washington Post; Ariel Edwards-Levy of Huffington Post; James Hohmann of Politico, political writers and commentators Kyle Kondik and Geoff Skelley of the University of Virginia Center for Politics; Jill Lawrence of Creators Syndicate; Visiting Assistant Professor Josh Putnam of Appalachian State University; Michael Toner and Karen Trainer of Wiley Rein LLP; and Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics.

Deeply influenced by Enlightenment writers from Naples and France, Vincenzo Cuoco (1770-1823) was forced into exile for his involvement in the failed Neapolitan revolution of 1799. Living in Milan, he wrote what became one of the nineteenth century's most important treatises on political revolution. In his Historical Essay on the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799, Cuoco synthesized the work of Machiavelli, Vico, and Enlightenment philosophers to offer an explanation for why and how revolutions succeed or fail. A major influence on political thought during the unification of Italy, the Historical Essay was also an inspiration to twentieth-century thinkers such as Benedetto Croce and Antonio Gramsci. This critical edition, featuring an authoritative translation, introduction, and annotations, finally makes Cuoco's work fully accessible to an English-speaking audience.

Public opinion polls consistently reveal the lack of confidence, disillusionment, and mistrust that citizens feel toward government. Daniels and his contributors believe that the relationship between citizens and their governments can be changed by facilitating greater citizen collaboration with government, particularly through local sustainable programs. As the case studies show, often sustainable community programs are created through grassroots movements that are initiated and managed by citizens themselves, bringing them in contact with their local elected and appointed officials. Unlike traditional programs that are administered by local officials on behalf of their citizens, once sustainable community programs are created, citizens administer their own programs in collaboration with local officials.

The case studies look at a variety of sustainable programs, primarily in the United States, that help to deal with issues such as recycling, transportation, microcredit, site redevelopment, pollution, health care, and hunger. "Creating Sustainable Community Programs" is the first book on sustainable programs that is intended for an audience of public administration scholars, researchers, and students as well as practitioners who are searching for ways to change the relationship between citizens and their governments.

This work is a detailed description of the use of Box Jenkins time-series analysis techniques--including autoregressive-integrated moving average (ARIMA) modeling--to test two hypotheses relating economic conditions to presidential popularity. . . . Lanoue's model shows the two hypotheses to be interrelated. Rising inflation rates have a negative effect on presidential popularity; falling inflation rates have no impact. These negative impacts are present only for Democratic administrations. Recession--as measured by declining real disposable income--leads to a decline in presidential popularity. Recovery from recession leads to a return in popularity. . . . Despite the clarity of the writing and the separation of the methodological details from most of the substantive discussions, this work is most appropriate for advanced undergraduates, graduate, and research collections. Annals of the American Academy Presidential popularity has been much discussed in recent years. This analysis deals with questions raised by the differing patterns of public approval experienced by the last six U.S. presidents, starting with John Kennedy's administration (Camelot) and concluding with a look at Ronald Reagan, who has often been termed the Teflon President. Lanoue begins with an overview of economics and politics as they relate to presidential popularity. He presents the research design and discusses the methodology involved, expecially the use of the Box-Jenkins approach. The results of his analysis are presented in two sections. The first, Inflation and Popularity, presents a model of presidential popularity as it relates to inflation. Specifically, it argues that voters evaluate the economic performances of different parties' presidents in different ways. The second section, Income and Popularity, takes an initial look at symmetry and income, and then presents two approaches to the analysis of asymmetry. This Asymmetric Hypothesis states that the electorate punishes the president and his party for hard times, but fails to reward them when economic conditions improve. The concluding chapter analyzes whether asymmetry is psychological or situational, and considers partisan effects in a chapter subtitled Bad News for Democrats. A final section on macroeconomic policy deals with maximizing popularity through changes in economic priorities.

Millard Fillmore began his presidency on July 10, 1850, immediately passing the Fugitive Slave Act, and forever damaging his political career. Abolitionists and antislavery politicians were appalled and in 1852 Fillmore was denied nomination for a second term. Four years later he campaigned again for the presidency to no avail. As the decade came to an end, Millard Fillmore was no more than an obscure name in history. Today, historians are finding new interest in Fillmore and his politics on slavery. Many believed he tolerated injustice for what he perceived was the greater good. In this comprehensive bibliography, students will find citations and sources for information on Millard Fillmore's childhood and personal life, presidency and post-presidential career. Students can easily access specific information through the table of contents and author and subject indexes.

This continuation of a classic serves as a valuable research and reference tool for those seeking basic biographical information about American governors, and students wishing to do statistical analysis of voting trends in gubernatorial elections. Arranged alphabetically by name of state, the book contains brief biographical data on governors, including date of birth, birth place, residence, occupation, party affiliation, date and age at death, and date and age on assuming office. A second set of tables for each state includes election statistics by party for all gubernatorial elections.

Relying on extensive candid interviews from members of Congress and staff on defense authorization committees and senior Army general officers, Scroggs provides a strong insider analysis with recommendations. He examines the impact of culture on the varying abilities of public agencies, specifically the Army, to pursue its organizational interests through lobbying or liaising Congress. Scroggs argues that despite structural similarities in how the four military services approach Congress, differences in service culture affect their relative success in achieving their goals on the Hill. Scroggs draws four major conclusions. First, despite a law prohibiting lobbying of Congress by public agencies, Congress views lobbying or liaising by public entities, especially the military services, not only as a legitimate activity, but essential to Members carrying out their constitutional responsibilities. Second, relative to the other services, the Army is viewed by Congress as the least effective in its lobbying. Third, the Army's patterned approach with Congress is largely a function of its unrecognized and uncompensated culture in the unique terrain of the nation's capital. Fourth, because of the need for balanced service representation to Congress, relatively less effective Army efforts have troubling implications for national security and Army self-interest.

A world-renowned British stateman, Arthur James Balfour is best known as Prime Minister and signer of the Balfour Declaration, calling for a national home for Jews in Palestine. Less well known are his initiatives in creating a structure for strategic planning, preparation for, and fighting a war, the Committee of Imperial Defence, and chairing the committee which articulated the basis for the constitution of the British Commonwealth of Nations. This book provides the most extensive survey of the literature by and about Balfour. The first section of the book, a historiographical narrative, surveys the important literature, integrating historical and biographical events, criticisms, evaluations, and observations of reviewers along with those of the writer. It surveys books, monographs, official histories, government publications, memoirs, diaries, dissertations, bibliographies, pertinent articles from journals, collections of unpublished papers, manuscript collections, and archival and research holdings. The second section provides an annotated bibliography of the 500 items discussed in the historiographical narrative.

Through the new use of new empirical evidence derived from analysing employment services, gender equality policies and flexicurity in Greece and Portugal, this book provides compelling new insights into how European Employment Strategy (EES) can influence the domestic employment policy of European Union member states.

Sir Henry Taylor's classic treatise The Statesman, originally published in 1836, is the first modern book to be devoted to the subject of public administration. It has been read and studied by generations for its keen insights into the relationship between public administrators and elected officials in a democracy. It has also been appreciated for its wit. The present volume is the first twentieth-century edition to be based on the revised and expanded text that Taylor published in 1878 as part of his Collected Works. It is also the first edition to be fully annotated. The lengthy editors' introduction to this volume emphasizes the relevance of Taylor's thought to the fundamental issues of public administration in the contemporary United States. The editors demonstrate the superiority of Taylor's understanding of the relationship between politics and administration to the widely accepted model of that relation that derives from the thought of Woodrow Wilson. Above all, they argue, Taylor's insights merit our attention because they indicate how a properly organized civil service can be a locus of statesmanship in a democracy, fulfilling the intentions of the authors of the American Constitution in a contemporary context that differs significantly from what the Founders themselves anticipated.

This series of documents, covering the first hundred years after the Provisions of Oxford in 1258, is given in translation so that all who are interested in the history of parliament but have little Latin and less Old French may consult them.

"Many citizens, politicians, and pundits routinely complain about the health of the political system, but few attempt a systematic diagnosis and even fewer recommend treatments. In this highly readable book, Anthony Gierzynski identifies many of the shortcomings in U.S. politics and offers some provocative prescriptions to address them." - Paul S. Herrnson, University of Maryland "For those anxious about the health of American democracy, they can do no better than read Gierzynski's book, which offers a sane and informed approach to making our political institutions work better. And like a good doctor, Gierzynski wisely avoids recommending many of the conventional remedies that might do more harm than good." - Ray La Raja, University of Massachusetts "Unlike myopic specialists who are prone to treat only a specific part of the body, Dr. Gierzynski offers scholars, students, and laymen a holistic and rich understanding of what ails us and what we can do to make things better. This is a readable and important book for anyone who cares about the health of our democracy." - David T. Z. Mindich, Saint Michael's College

Designed as a text for upper-level undergraduate-and graduate-level courses in public administration, public management, public policy, organizational behavior, this book looks at how people work effectively in public organizations. Written entirely by experienced practitioners, the text is unique in that it addresses throughout both the practical concerns of the working administrator and those of the theorist. By using their own on-the-job experiences as illustrative samples, the contributors clearly demonstrate how theory can improve practice and how practice can be used to generate theories.

Following an introductory chapter by the editor on the role of practitioners in the intellectual development of public administration, the text is divided into four sections. Part One, on the individual in public organizations, covers the ways in which managers learn and teach, presents an alternative contemplative paradigm of organizational behavior, and explores the role of the heroic individual in public administration. Part Two focuses on other people and public organizations, examining such issues as organizational learning, internal evaluation in organizations, organizational pathologies, and controlling conflict. Turning to the question of structure and public organizations, the contributors address ways in which organizational structure can be influenced, describe a learning model of organization, identify archetypes in organizations, and analyze the structure of power in public organizations. The final section looks at the management and leadership skills necessary to be successful in public administration.

The debut of a brand-new civics series for high school seniors and college freshmen that clearly, concisely, and cleverly explains how the United States elects its president.

The French Fifth Republic Presidency has emerged as one of the most powerful executives in western society. This is a study of how that was possible and of the way in which the power of the Presidency was created and maintained. It investigates the political skills of the office holders and the way in which the coalition supporting the Presidency has been brought together and sustained (and how it has been, on occasion, lost). The book's analysis of leadership in the Fifth Republic draws out the skills and manipulation of the successive presidents as well as the resources of the cultural and political contexts. Among the topics considered as part of the presidential system are the Constitutions, the referendum, foreign policy, Europe, May 1968, Giscard d'Estaing's centrist septennate, cohabitation and neogaullism. These issues are treated as crucial elements in presidential power and help to illustrate the foundations of presidential authority. The main contention is that the presidency has been created and sustained by political arts of a high order which have involved the mobilization of certain symbols, culture, and political forces.

This comprehensive volume examines the historic and contemporary role of the state legislatures and assemblies of all 50 states, offering insight into important details of how each of these legislative bodies functions. The Legislative Branch of State Government: People, Process, and Politics is one of three titles in ABC-CLIO's About State Government set, offering comprehensive coverage of contemporary American politics at the state level. Each of the three volumes focuses on a specific governmental branch, providing both general information and comparative details on how that branch operates in each state. Ranging from colonial times to the present, this volume takes a broad look at how the nation's state legislative institutions have evolved and operate. Combined with the other two volumes in the set, a clear overview of state government emerges. The Legislative Branch of State Government covers the historical, constitutional, and political environment in which state legislatures exist, then focuses on their functions and processes, the people who serve in them, and their interaction with other key political institutions. A concluding chapter looks at characteristics that make each of the 50 state legislative bodies fascinating and unique. A narrative chronology of the development of state legislatures in America from the colonial era to the present, including remarkable stories and traditions of the nation's legislative bodies Easy-to-follow graphics depicting, for example, how a bill becomes a law and how the separation of powers and the principle of checks and balances define the relationship among the branches of government

This book offers an inside look at the principal decision makers and the major legal and constitutional decisions made in the Department of Justice under Attorney General Edwin Meese. This unique perspective is offered by Douglas Kmiec, former assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). His story is a fascinating chronicle and analysis of the significant issues addressed during and since the Reagan years. These important issues include: the controversy over methods of constitutional interpretation; the legitimacy of independent counsels; efforts by the president to control executive agencies and to keep Congress in check; family issues, including abortion, AIDS, limitations on pornography, and school choice; the protection of property and economic liberty; the declining role of state and local governments; quotas, affirmative action, and civil rights; the continuing saga of Iran-Contra; and contemporary calls for ethics reform.

Important as a historical and legal analysis of the Reagan years, this work will be of interest to scholars and readers concerned with contemporary social and constitutional issues, the ramifications of the Reagan presidency, and how things have changed under George Bush. It is also the first revealing look at constitutional decisionmaking within OLC, an office that counts among its alumni the present Attorney General and two members of the Supreme Court.