Bureaucratic Democracy: Search for Democracy and Efficiency in American Government - Brossura

Yates, Douglas

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0674086112 ISBN 13: 9780674086111

Casa editrice: Harvard Univ Pr, 1982

Riassunto

Although everyone agrees on the need to make government work better, few understand public bureaucracy sufficiently well to offer useful suggestions, either theoretical or practical. In fact, some consider bureaucratic efficiency incompatible with democratic government.

Douglas Yates places the often competing aims of efficiency and democracy in historical perspective and then presents a unique and systematic theory of the politics of bureaucracy, which he illustrates with examples from recent history and from empirical research. He argues that the United States operates under a system of "bureaucratic democracy," in which governmental decisions increasingly are made in bureaucratic settings, out of the public eye. He describes the rational, selfinterested bureaucrat as a "minimaxer," who inches forward inconspicuously, gradually accumulating larger budgets and greater power, in an atmosphere of segmented pluralism, of conflict and competition, of silent politics.

To make the policy process more competitive, democratic, and open, Yates calls for strategic debate among policymakers and bureaucrats and insists that bureaucrats should give a public accounting of their significant decisions rather than bury them in incremental changes. He offers concrete proposals, applicable to federal, state, and local governments, for simplifying the now-chaotic bureaucratic policymaking system and at the same time bolstering representation and openness.

This is a book for all political scientists, policymakers, government officials, and concerned citizens. It may well become a classic statement on the workings of public bureaucracy.

Su questo libro

L'autore

Douglas Yates is Associate Professor of Organization and Management and Political Science, Yale University. He won the 1973 Leonard D. White Prize of the American Political Science Association.

Product Description

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Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Harvard Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 1982
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0674086112
• ISBN 13: 9780674086111
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 288
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile