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A Government Ill Executed: The Decline of the Federal Service and How to Reverse It | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul C. Light
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $45.00
Buy New: $32.50
You Save: $12.50 (28%)
New (19) Used (5) from $32.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 89589
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0674028082
Dewey Decimal Number: 351.73
EAN: 9780674028081
ASIN: 0674028082
Publication Date: May 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: CHARITY SALE!! New book -- slight shelf wear to dust jacket. 100% of the proceeds benefit the literacy efforts of Books For America.
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Product Description
Hear commentary by Paul Light on why young, talented workers are steering clear of jobs in the federal government (from National Public Radio). 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 A well reasoned view of government September 3, 2008
Paul Light, an academic specialist in government affairs, provides a cogent, sell referenced view of government as it is, versus how it should be. Strongly recommended for those working in, or interested in governmental affairs.
A Government Ill Executed August 14, 2008
I purchased this book for class. I don't regret buying it. It was very informative. I would recommend it to anyone interested in public administration.
 Reversing the decline of the federal service July 15, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
"A Government Ill Executed" by Paul Light is the most useful book I have read recently concerning the operation of our federal government. He finds it plagued by poor execution, citing such familiar examples as negligent medical care of veterans, contract problems in Iraq, and the Katrina debacle, a decline he is eager to reverse.
Light goes back to Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, finding traces of each in the strengths and weaknesses of our modern government. In fact, the theme of the book is similar to that of Alexander Hamilton when he argued in Federalist Paper No. 70 that "a government ill executed is a bad government."
Much of this very readable book is devoted to problems that Light believes have led to a significant decline in the effectiveness of the federal government. For example, he describes the increased layering of the federal government and the growing number of low-level political appointees that slow government processes and dilute accountability. Light laments the current conditions that reduce the ability of government to attract talented men and women to the federal career service, and once in government, reduces their incentive to remain.
In citing these and other growing deficiencies, Light suggests the need for a bold attack to reverse this decline, pointing out that addressing only one problem at a time will have little impact. To move beyond merely tinkering with change, he urges a packaging of actions that address a number of interrelated problems. His agenda lists 28 specific changes designed to restore a more energetic federal service. Recognizing the challenges in building sufficient consensus to achieve this ambitious goal, Light suggests that it may take a national commission on government restructuring to advance a successful comprehensive reform.
Paul Light's timely package of reform ideas deserves careful consideration by the presidential transition teams of both Senators McCain and Obama.
A Must-Read for federal government management July 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Paul Light's "A Government Well-Executed" is a must-read, not only for students of government, but for anyone who wants the federal government to perform better. It astutely synthesizes the managerial issues that need to be addressed today and lays out realistically what must be done to remedy these urgent problems. There is no book available that does a better job -- clearly, concisely, comprehensively.
Richard Stillman
Editor in Chief
Public Administration Quarterly
A Bad Government July 14, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
The compilation of newspaper articles known as the "Federalist Papers" contains some of the best analysis of the art of government to be found. The purpose of these articles was to present the arguments for ratifying the proposed U.S. Constitution. One section of this work (Federalist Papers 70-77) contained a detailed analysis of the Executive Branch by Alexander Hamilton which included his analysis of federal government operations. Light had the inspired idea to use this section as a standard against which to measure the effectiveness of current government operations. Indeed the book's title is from an observation by Hamilton (Federalist 70) that, "... a government ill-executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government."
This book is not a detailed look at specific Federal Bureaucracies, but a broad critique of federal government operations and the civil service that executes them. Its primary argument is, that measured against Hamilton's idea of "vigor and expedition", the present civil service is found severely wanting. This is not a book that assigns blame. Its purpose is to try to identify why the civil service has failed at its primary function to effectively execute its governmental responsibilities. Light builds his chapters around what he has identified as seven requirements for an energetic public service. In each chapter he attempts to demonstrate how the failure to meet these requirements prevents the civil service from being effective. In a general sense Light has developed a persuasive argument for what is wrong with the current U.S. System of Public Service and how to fix it.
His work is flawed however by several acts of commission and omission. He makes far too much use of surveys which like polls are inherently dubious. And he fails to actually analyze the inner workings of the collective bureaucracies that he critiques. Had he done so he would have realized that the top heavy hierarchies he refers to as "thickening" not only impede day to day operations, but pose a tremendous inertial force against internal innovations and both internal and external efforts at reform. Inexplicably he fails to note the rampant `staff infections' that plague the federal bureaucracies and directly impede their efficiency. This is the result of the `thickening' of the hierarchy because each new position within a command structure brings not only new `officer' and deputy, but their respective staffs as well. Indeed in some individual bureaucracies the ratio of staff to production workers can run as high as one to three. These staffs serve as barriers to change and innovation protecting the status quo against all comers.
Alexander Hamilton would probably be pleased with Light's work, but disappointed that he didn't do a more thorough job.
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