| Description |
1 online resource |
| Contents |
Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- About the Authors -- Abbreviations -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- 1.1 A Crisis Finds a Nation as It Is -- 1.2 Avoiding Presentism -- 1.3 The Administrative Landscape -- 1.4 Force Multipliers, Proxies, and the Shadow Bureaucracy -- 1.5 The Structure of This Book -- References -- Chapter 2: The Mask Is Off -- 2.1 A Global Test and an American Failure -- 2.2 "Nobody Owns the Problem:" Failures of Problem-Solving and Management -- 2.3 From Disorientation to Collapse: Failures of Engagement -- 2.4 "Ask China": Failures of Accountability |
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2.5 Resilience and the Breakdown of a Sense of Shared Fate -- 2.6 Reopening Problems: Second-Order Failures -- 2.7 "And the Governors Know That:" Pandemic Federalism -- 2.8 The Broken Branch -- 2.9 Designed Incapacity -- 2.10 A Failure of Capacity in Five Dimensions -- References -- Chapter 3: The Concept of Capacity -- 3.1 Capacity in the Spotlight -- 3.2 Administrative Capacity as the Core of Government -- 3.3 Formative and Reflective Operationalizations -- 3.4 Agency Capacity from a Watchdog's Perspective -- 3.5 Surge Capacities, Tipping Points, and Breakdowns |
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3.6 The Imperative of Resilience -- 3.7 The Political Development Context -- 3.8 Definition and Framework of Administrative Capacity -- 3.9 The Core Dimensions of Capacity -- 3.9.1 Problem-Solving -- 3.9.2 Management -- 3.9.3 Administrative Conservatorship or Leadership -- 3.9.4 Engagement and Communication -- 3.9.5 Accountability -- References -- Chapter 4: Capacity and Reform Movements -- 4.1 Capacity and Reformism in the Administrative State -- 4.2 Two Approaches to Controlling Capacity -- 4.2.1 Traditional Approaches -- 4.2.2 Transactional Approaches |
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4.3 Executive Dominance and the Broken Branch: The Tectonic Shift -- 4.4 Capacity Decline and the Separation of Parties -- 4.5 Capacity Decline, Belief Making, and Reform Theater -- 4.6 Capacity Decline and "Agency X" -- 4.7 Decline and Citizen Attitude Toward Capacity -- 4.8 Capacity Decline and Decay -- References -- Chapter 5: Traditional Approaches to Controlling Administrative Capacity -- 5.1 Exploring the Formation of Administrative Capacity -- 5.2 The Early Context of Administrative Capacity in the United States -- 5.2.1 Fundamental Tension of Administrative Capacity |
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5.2.2 Tempering Executive Power with Responsibility -- 5.3 Early Challenges of Administrative Capacity -- 5.4 Politicized Administrative Capacity -- 5.5 Professionalized Administrative Capacity -- 5.6 Congressional Attention to Efficient Administrative Capacity -- 5.6.1 Early Ideas in Performance Management -- 5.6.2 Systematic Analysis of Capacity -- 5.7 Presidential Attention to Efficient Administrative Capacity -- 5.7.1 Capacity Building in Management, Engagement, and Administrative Leadership -- 5.7.2 Solidifying Executive-Oriented Capacity in Theory and Practice |
| Summary |
This volume proposes a capacity-centered approach for understanding American bureaucracy. The administrative institutions that made the country a superpower turned out to be fragile under Donald Trumps presidency. Laboring beneath systematic accusations of deep statism, combined with a market oriented federal administration, bureaucratic capacity manifested its decay in the public health and constitutional cataclysms of 2020, denting Americas global leadership and contributing to its own peoples suffering. The authors combine interviews with a historical examination of federal administrative reforms in the backdrop of the recent pandemic and electoral tumult to craft a developmental framework of the ebb and flow of capacity. While reforms, large and small, brought about professionalization and other benefits to federal administration, they also camouflaged a gradual erosion when anti-bureaucratic approaches became entrenched. A sclerotic, brittle condition in the governments capacity to work efficiently and accountably arose over time, even as administrative power consolidated around the executive. That co-evolutionary dynamic made federal government ripe for the capacity bifurcation, delegitimization, and disinvestment witnessed over the last four years. As the system works out the long-term impacts of such a deconstruction, it also prompts a rethinking of capacity in more durable terms. Calling attention to a more comprehensive appreciation of the dynamics around administrative capacity, this volume argues for Congress, citizens, and the good government community to promote capacity rebuilding initiatives that have resilience at the core. As such, the book will be of interest to citizens, public reformers, civic leaders, scholars and students of public administration, policy, and public affairs |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Online resource; title from PDF title page (SpringerLInk, viewed October 14, 2021) |
| Subject |
Politics and government
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| SUBJECT |
United States -- Politics and government. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140410
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| Subject |
United States
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Greitens, Thomas J
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| ISBN |
9783030805647 |
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3030805646 |
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