Our government is in crisis, mired in bureaucracy and often unable to fix tough problems. This book provides an essential new model for transforming the system and getting things done. Covid. Climate change. Refugee resettlement. Global supply chains. We are facing a new generation of complex problems, stretching across the public and private sectors and flowing over organizational boundaries. Historically we have looked to government for big solutions, but the reality is, the government we have now is a poor match for the problems we face. It is trapped in organizational boxes and handicapped by leaders who, too often, try to manage problems from the top down. We need a fresh, new approach. As executive director of Deloitte's Center for Government Insights, William D. Eggers and public management scholar Donald F. Kettl show in this indispensable book, we need a government of bridgebuilders, public managers and leaders who collaborate with partners, both inside and outside government, to get the job done. They manage horizontally instead of vertically; they see their role as connectors; and they identify which players have the assets needed to solve the problems at hand. Each chapter examines one of the ten core principles of bridgebuilding and features practical tips and dynamic cases of how effective leaders have put each principle to work. Also included: a special section on creating a 100-day bridgebuilding plan. Throughout, Eggers and Kettl tell fascinating and instructive stories of bridgebuilders who are transcending boundaries, partnering across sectors, and getting sh*t done. Government can't reorganize itself out of the challenges it faces or muscle its way through with a command-and-control approach to problem solving. Bridgebuilders provides a new model that current public managers and leaders, as well as young people aspiring to public service, can learn and apply right now to transform government performance and restore public trust.

Politics of the Administrative Process gives students a realistic, relevant, and well-researched view of the field while remaining reader-friendly with engaging vignettes and rich, current examples. With a unique focus on policymaking and politics, the Ninth Edition continues its strong emphasis on politics, accountability, and performance.

Why federalism is pulling America apart-and how the system can be reformed Federalism was James Madison's great invention. An innovative system of power sharing that balanced national and state interests, federalism was the pragmatic compromise that brought the colonies together to form the United States. Yet, even beyond the question of slavery, inequality was built into the system because federalism by its very nature meant that many aspects of an American's life depended on where they lived. Over time, these inequalities have created vast divisions between the states and made federalism fundamentally unstable. In The Divided States of America, Donald Kettl chronicles the history of a political system that once united the nation-and now threatens to break it apart. Exploring the full sweep of federalism from the founding to today, Kettl focuses on pivotal moments when power has shifted between state and national governments-from the violent rebalancing of the Civil War, when the nation almost split in two, to the era of civil rights a century later, when there was apparent agreement that inequality was a threat to liberty and the federal government should set policies for states to enact. Despite this consensus, inequality between states has only deepened since that moment. From health care and infrastructure to education and the environment, the quality of public services is ever more uneven. Having revealed the shortcomings of Madison's marvel, Kettl points to possible solutions in the writings of another founder: Alexander Hamilton. Making an urgent case for reforming federalism, The Divided States of America shows why we must-and how we can-address the crisis of American inequality.

Leading experts address questions of public and private roles in assessing, managing, and mitigating major risks to public health and safety in light of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. "This volume provides important insights from the nation's leading experts on how we, as a community and nation, should be rethinking disaster assessment, prevention, and mitigation. Policymakers, legislators, business leaders, and scholars: this is a must-read."--Jon Huntsman, Jr., Governor of Utah "An indispensable resource for all who seek to learn from the unprecedented devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. I commend the authors for recording the valuable lessons learned. Their work will assuredly help our communities be better prepared for the next catastrophe."--James Lee Witt, former Director, Federal Emergency Management Agency "An enormously important volume that comes at just the right time. In the wake of Katrina, new thinking is urgently needed on how to manage catastrophic risk most effectively--especially regarding prevention and recovery. This precious volume offers insights on both fronts, with contributions from many of the nation's leading authorities on risk and disaster. It is a must-read for scholars and policymakers alike."--David A. Moss, Harvard Business School Hurricane Katrina not only devastated a large area of the nation's Gulf coast, it also raised fundamental questions about ways the nation can, and should, deal with the inevitable problems of economic risk and social responsibility. This volume gathers leading experts to examine lessons that Hurricane Katrina teaches us about better assessing, perceiving, and managing risks from future disasters. The 20 contributors to this volume address questions of public and private roles in assessing, managing, and dealing with risk in American society and suggest strategies for moving ahead in rebuilding the Gulf coast. Contributors: Matthew Adler, Vicki Bier, Baruch Fischhoff, Kenneth R. Foster, Robert Giegengack, Peter Gosselin, Scott E. Harrington, Carolyn Kousky, Robert Meyer, Harvey G. Ryland, Brian L. Strom, Kathleen Tierney, Michael J. Trebilcock, Detlof von Winterfeldt, Jonathan Walters, Richard J. Zeckhauser. Ronald J. Daniels is Provost and Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania. He has published widely, including Rethinking the Welfare State: The Prospects for Government by Voucher (with Michael Trebilcock) and The Security of Freedom: Essays on Canada's Anti-Terrorism Bill (coedited with Patrick Macklem and Kent Roach). Donald F. Kettl, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, has written or edited "System under Stress: Homeland Security and American Politics," "The Global Public Management Revolution," "The Politics of the Administrative Process" (with James W. Fesler), "The Transformation of Governance: Public Administration for the 21st Century," among many other books. Howard Kunreuther is Professor and Codirector of the Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. His has written or coedited a number of books, including "Catastrophe Modeling: A New Approach to Managing Risk" (with Patricia Grossi) and "Wharton on Making Decisions" (with Stephen Hoch). Amy Gutmann is the eighth President of the University of Pennsylvania and the author of "Why Deliberative Democracy?" (with Dennis Thompson), "Identity in Democracy, Democratic Education, Democracy and Disagreement" (with Dennis Thompson), and "Color Conscious" (with K. Anthony Appiah). Her reviews have appeared in the "New York Times Book Review," "Times Literary Supplement," "Washington Post," and other general publications.

The prevailing notion that the best government is achieved through principles of management and business practices is hardly new - it echoes the early twentieth-century "gospel of efficiency" challenged by Dwight Waldo in 1948 in his path-breaking book, "The Administrative State". Asking, "Efficiency for what?", Waldo warned that public administrative efficiency must be backed by a framework of consciously held democratic values. "Revisiting Waldo's Administrative State" brings together a group of distinguished authors who critically explore public administration's big ideas and issues and question whether contemporary efforts to "reinvent government", promote privatization, and develop new public management approaches constitute a coherent political theory capable of meeting the complex challenges of governing in a democracy. Taking Waldo's book as a starting point, the authors revisit and update his key concepts and consider their applicability for today. The book follows Waldo's conceptual structure, first probing the material and ideological background of modern public administration, problems of political philosophy, and finally particular challenges inherent in contemporary administrative reform. It concludes with a look ahead to "wicked" policy problems - such as terrorism, global warming, and ecological threats - whose scope is so global and complex that they will defy any existing administrative structures and values. Calling for a return to conscious consideration of democratic accountability, fairness, justice, and transparency in government, the book's conclusion assesses the future direction of public administrative thought. This book can stand alone as a commentary on reconciling democratic values and governance today or as a companion when reading Waldo's classic volume.

The traditional theory of public administration is based on entrenched notions of hierarchy and authority. However, as the structure of public work has grown less hierarchical, managers have adopted a wide variety of non-authoritarian strategies. This growing gap between theoretical ideas and actual practice poses enormous challenges for front-line leaders struggling to deal with ever-larger expectations and ever-tighter budgets-and for American government in determining how best to hold public administrators accountable for their performance. The Transformation of Governance offers a new framework for reconciling effective administration with the requirements of democratic government. Instead of thinking in terms of organizational structure and management, Donald F. Kettl suggests, administrators and theorists need to focus on governance, or the links between government and its broader environment-political, social, and administrative-through which social action occurs. In this updated edition, a new epilogue shows Kettl urging political leaders to step back from the political barricades of hyperpartisanship to consider government's contemporary dilemma: Is there any practical way forward for public administrators to manage government effectively? Reinforcing the ten principles of bridge building which he developed in the original book, Kettl adds an eleventh, which lays out five transformative strategies: redefining public law to promote public accountability; re-conceptualizing government agencies as instruments of leverage; launching government leaders as boundary spanners; using information technology for building authority and trust; and incorporating performance management into processes that drive collaboration. With a new preface from Michael Nelson, editor of the Interpreting American Politics series, this award-winning book will be sought out by public policymakers eager to read a leading scholar's newest insights into the field.

Why federalism is pulling America apart-and how the system can be reformed Federalism was James Madison's great invention. An innovative system of power sharing that balanced national and state interests, federalism was the pragmatic compromise that brought the colonies together to form the United States. Yet, even beyond the question of slavery, inequality was built into the system because federalism by its very nature meant that many aspects of an American's life depended on where they lived. Over time, these inequalities have created vast divisions between the states and made federalism fundamentally unstable. In The Divided States of America, Donald Kettl chronicles the history of a political system that once united the nation-and now threatens to break it apart. Exploring the full sweep of federalism from the founding to today, Kettl focuses on pivotal moments when power has shifted between state and national governments-from the violent rebalancing of the Civil War, when the nation almost split in two, to the era of civil rights a century later, when there was apparent agreement that inequality was a threat to liberty and the federal government should set policies for states to enact. Despite this consensus, inequality between states has only deepened since that moment. From health care and infrastructure to education and the environment, the quality of public services is ever more uneven. Having revealed the shortcomings of Madison's marvel, Kettl points to possible solutions in the writings of another founder: Alexander Hamilton. Making an urgent case for reforming federalism, The Divided States of America shows why we must-and how we can-address the crisis of American inequality.

"Kettl's easy-to-read book and various examples of big data application are required reading for seasoned academics as well as for students who work in public administration and want to contribute to real-world problem solving." -Junghack Kim, Wichita State University Little Bites of Big Data for Public Policy brings to life the quest to make better policy with better evidence. This brief book frames the big puzzles and, through lively stories and clear examples, provides a valuable how-to guide for producing analysis that works-that speaks persuasively to policy makers, in the language they can best hear, on the problems for which they most need answers. Author Donald F. Kettl brings together the cutting-edge streams of data analytics and data visualization to frame the big puzzles and find ways to make the pieces fit together. By taking little bites of a wide variety of useful data, and then by analyzing it in ways that decision makers will find most helpful, analysts can be much more effective in shaping solutions to the most important problems governments face.

Over the last quarter century, governments around the world have launched ambitious efforts to reform how they manage their programs. Citizens have demanded smaller, cheaper, more effective governments. They have also asked for more programs and better services. To resolve this paradox, governments have experimented with scores of ideas to be more productive, improve performance, and reduce costs. In this new edition of The Global Public Management Revolution, Donald F. Kettl charts the basic models of reform that are being employed worldwide. Reviewing the standard strategies and tactics behind these reforms, Kettl identifies six common core ideas: the search for greater productivity; more public reliance on private markets; a stronger orientation toward service; more decentralization from national to subnational governments; increased capacity to devise and track public policy; and tactics to enhance accountability for results. Kettl predicts that reform and reinvention will likely become mantras for governments of all stripes. Ultimately, this strategy means coupling the reform impulse with governancegovernments increasingly important relationship with civil society and the institutions that shape modern life.

The Team-Based Leadership Model of America's First MBA President

"Team Bush "is a gripping portrait of George W. Bush at the helm, one that transcends politics to provide an inside look at the hands-on specifics of Bush's aggressive yet pragmatic leadership style. This fast-paced yet powerful book explains how the Bush model can be used by any executive to streamline management and decision processes--and establishes a new standard for results-oriented leadership in the 21st century.

Get the inside story on George W. Bush's leadership techniques and tactics, and how they can be used to drive performance in virtually any setting, in "Team Bush."

Praise for "Team Bush":

"This short book is long on insight, both for government leaders seeking to learn leadership lessons from effective CEOs and for business leaders seeking to learn the same lessons from effective leaders in government."--Steven Kelman, Weatherhead Professor of Public Management, The John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

"Kettl provides a lively, insightful and sympathetic distillation of the surprisingly effective leadership style of President George W. Bush."--Thomas E. Mann, W. Averell Harriman Chair in Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution

"Management matters, in politics and government as much as in business and commerce. In clear language and with a slew of examples, Team Bush concisely dissects the management style that has helped President George W. Bush to sustain his public approval and achieve both political and policy success."--Norman J. Ornstein, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute

"If I have any genius or smarts, it's the ability to recognize talent, askthem to serve, and work with them as a team."--George W. Bush

President George W. Bush forged his team-based leadership style in the world of private enterprise. Before becoming our nation's first MBA president (Harvard, 1975), "W" had developed his own style of talking with and listening to team members, making decisions based on their input, and then relying on his team to carry out those decisions. It was a style tailor-made for the presidency.

"Team Bush "explores the mind and methods of America's 43rd president. Bypassing theory and jargon to focus on Bush's hands-on decision making standards and practices, this compelling leadership resource reveals: The President's decide-and-delegate style of leadership, adapted from the pages of Harvard MBA textbooks Techniques Bush used to build one of history's most talented cabinets, and how he tailors his communication style to fit that of each member How Bush helped his party retain the House and recapture the Senate in his first mid-term election--a feat almost unheard of by a sitting president

Beyond the conference rooms of the White House, however, "Team Bush "explains how executives can use Bush's model to streamline decision-making and boost productivity in virtually any arena. This fast-moving leadership manual discusses the value of receiving accurate, unfiltered information from close advisors, and how to establish a chain of communication for receiving that information. It explains the value of limiting goals to those that are essential, and devising methods to make them achievable. It explores the importance of developing a meaningful plan and sticking with that plan, regardless of distractions and delays.

"Team Bush"is, first and foremost, a portrait of the stunning successes--and occasional setbacks--of George W. Bush during his first two years as president of the United States. More than that, however, it is an examination of a new style of leadership, based as much on the knowledge and performance of one's team as it is on the knowledge and performance of oneself. George W. Bush has come as near as anyone to perfecting that style. Discover what he has done, and how you can use his model in your own leadership pursuits, in "Team Bush."

This book provides the first independent assessment of the Clinton administration's "reinventing government" plan after a year of effort. What has the reinvention machine produced? Where does it most need to be oiled and adjusted? And has it truly changed the way the federal government conducts its business? The authors of Improving Government Performance: An Owner's Manual (Brookings, 1993) join with other public management experts for a look at both the practice and theory of reinventing government. In examining the movement's driving ideas, relationships with the government's workforce, and connections with the broader political community, they take stock of the boldest governmental reform movement in a generation.

The authors assert that Vice President Gore's National Performance Review has sparked remarkable innovations by operating managers in federal agencies. The NPR, however, has unleashed broad changes throughout the federal government without building the new capacity in the Executive Office of the President required to manage the changing burdens of federal programs. The book appraises the many positive management reforms that federal managers have created, assesses the central political and administrative support that the White House must provide if the NPR is to be successful in the long run, and examines the lessons about the president's role in governmental management that the NPR's experiment in decentralized administration teaches.

The contributors are Carolyn Ban, State University of New York (SUNY), Albany; Christopher H. Foreman, Jr., Brookings; Gerald Garvey, Princeton; Constance Horner, Brookings; and Beryl Radin, SUNY, Albany.

Donald F. Kettl, professor and associate director at the LaFollette Institute of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the author of Sharing Power: Public Governance and Private Markets (Brookings, 1993) and coauthor of Civil Service Reform: Building a Government That Works (Brookings, 1996). John J. DiIulio, Jr., professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University and a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings, is the editor of Deregulating the Public Service: Can Government Be Improved? (Brookings, 1994) and coauthor of Body Count: Moral Povery... and How to Win America's War Against Crime and Drugs (Simon Schuster, 1996).

"In the flush of enthusiasm to make government work better, reformers from both left and right have urged government to turn as many functions as possible over to the private sector and to allow market competition instill efficiency and choice. In fact, government has been doing just this for years: every major policy initiative launched since World War II has been managed by public-private partnerships. Yet such privatization has not solved government's problems. While there have been some positive results, thee has been far less success than advocates of market competition have promised. In a searching examination of why the ""competition prescription"" has not worked well, Donald F. Kettl finds that government has largely been a poor judge of private markets. Because government rarely operates in truly competitive markets contracting out has not so much solved the problems of inefficiency, but has aggravated them. Government has often not proved to be an intelligent consumer of the goods and services it has purchased. Kettl provides specific recommendations as to how government can become a ""smart buyer,"" knowing what it wants and judging better what it has bought. Through detailed case studies, Kettl shows that as market imperfections increase, so do problems in governance and management. He examines the A-76 program for buying goods and services, the FTS-2000 telecommunications system, the Superfund program, the Department of Energy's production of nuclear weapons, and contracting out by state and local governments. He argues that government must be more aggressive in managing contracts if it is to build successful partnerships with outside contractors. Kettl maintains that the answer is not more government, but a smarter one, which requires strong political leadership to refocus the bureaucracy's mission and to change the bureaucratic culture. "

The Progressive government movement reined in corporate trusts and improved the lives of sweatshop workers. It created modern government, from the Federal Reserve to the nation's budgetary and civil service policies. Ask any American today and they will tell you how our government has hit a wall with profound implications. Trust in government is low, and the success of its programs. Instead of a focus on governmental effectiveness, the movement became known for governmental size. Both political parties contributed to the decline of the Progressive ideal, helping feed the gridlock and create a government that does not work the way citizens deserve. Donald Kettl argues for a rebirth of the Progressive spirit with a dedication to making the government work better. He outlines the problems in today's government, including political pressures, proxy tools, and capacity for management. Government Reclaimed details the strategies, evidence and people necessary to strengthen governmental effectiveness and shut down the gridlock.

The era of textbook top-down, stovepiped public management in America is over, and the traditional dichotomy between public ownership and privatization is an outdated notion. Public executives have shifted their focus from managing workers and directly providing services to orchestrating networks of public, private, and nonprofit organizations to deliver those services. In this new book, Stephen Goldsmith and Donald Kettl head a stellar cast of policy practitioners and scholars exploring the potential, strategies, and best practices of high-performance networks while identifying next-generation issues in public sector network management. Unlocking the Power of Networks employs sector-specific analyses to reveal how networked governance achieves previously unthinkable policy goals. The environmental arena in particular has proved to be fertile ground for the networked governance movement. William Eggers, Goldsmith's coauthor of the landmark Governing by Network, examines the Department of the Interior's initiative organizing networks of state and local officials, landowners, businesses, and citizens to protect natural resources. Barry Rabe, a pioneer in the study of subnational climate policy, looks at the role of networks in California's aggressive policy on greenhouse emissions. Former GAO official Paul Posner illustrates how a network mustered the resources, authority, expertise, and political support necessary to clean up Chesapeake Bay. American officials are not the only ones employing networked governance. In a disquieting chapter, Brinton Milward and Joerg Raab reveal how Islamic terror organizations have adapted and transformed themselves since 9/11. In a more hopeful vein, Edward DeSeve considers how network management could be used in the fight against terrorism, utilizing new organizational structures, increased staffing, upgraded technology, and new cross-agency mechanisms.

"The authors of this book contend that the civil service system, which was devised to create a uniform process for recruiting high-quality workers to government, is no longer uniform or a system. Nor does it help government find and retain the workers it needs to build a government that works. The current civil service system was designed for a government in which federal agencies directly delivered most public services. But over the last generation, privatization and devolution have increased the number and importance of government's partnerships with private companies, nonprofit organizations, and state and local governments. Government workers today spend much of their time managing these partnerships, not delivering services, and this trend will only accelerate in the future. The authors contend that the current system poorly develops government workers who can effectively manage these partnerships, resulting too often in a gap between promise and performance. This short, lively, and bipartisan volume, authored by the nation's leading experts on government management, describes what the government of the future will look like, what it will need to work well, and how in particular the nation can build the next generation of workers required to lead it. "

The Clinton administration's National Performance Review of the federal government (also called the Reinventing Government Initiative) is the eleventh effort this century to improve the executive branch and reform the federal service. Most previous efforts have faltered. How can present and future recommendations avoid the same fate?

This book provides practical and timely guidance to those trying to improve government performance. The focus of successful attempts, the authors argue, should be sustained evolution, not bursts of invention aimed at sweeping transformation. Specific proposals address ways to change government over the long term, ways to streamline bureaucracy, attract more resourceful and innovative workers, and make agencies more responsive to their customers, the citizens.

In this timely and compelling book, Donald F. Kettl demonstrates how the process of governance has fallen out of sync with the problems the government is trying to solve. Pick almost any recent domestic concern waging a war, protecting our food supply and borders, providing health-care coverage for an aging population or relief after a devastating hurricane and the standard response is to outsource most of the core tasks to thousands of independent contractors. The government foots the bill, but this strategy provides neither leadership nor accountability. Without anyone in charge, who can formulate innovative solutions to the increasingly complex problems the government faces? Kettl has answers, explaining with precision and clarity how a twenty-first century government must function in order to provide real solutions to the policy problems that face the United States.

Drawing data from crises like FEMA's tragic failure in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he demonstrates the increasingly complex nature of the problems our government must solve and the failings of its current approach. Based on the surprising successes of key officials in crisis situations, Kettl envisions a legion of leaders who run government they way that rocket scientists launch rockets--with strong leadership focused on objectives, held accountable for performance, and linked effectively to citizens so that it acts decisively for the public good. This book is a guide to the problems that ail our government and a road map for their solution.

Public management stands at the unique intersection of theory and practice. It seeks to help scholars frame questions that will improve their understanding of how policy ideas become transformed into practice and to help government managers see past the narrow issues on their desks to the broader implications of their work.

In "The State of Public Management," Donald F. Kettl and H. Brinton Milward bring together contributors who focus on the interdisciplinary nature of public management. Scholars from the social sciences--economics, political science, sociology, and psychology--examine what traditional disciplines bring to the debate. Other analysts build on this foundation to probe the theoretical bases of and practical solutions for public management.