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June 4, 2008
Professor Paul Light authors new book on the Federal Service, 'A Government Ill-Executed'
Paul Light, Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service at NYU Wagner, has written a timely and compelling new book, "A Government Ill-Executed: The Decline of the Federal Service and How to Reverse It." The book is receiving a raft of attention and plaudits from the media, and was the focus of a special event June 9 at the National Academy of Public Administration in Washington, D.C., with introductory remarks delivered by former Senator Tom Daschle. NAPA cosponsored the event -- attended by more than 65 people -- with NYU's Brademas Center for the Study of Congress, housed at Wagner. Among the public attention the book has received is a live web discussion; Light was invited by the Washington Post to participate in it (click below).
According to the book, published in May of 2008 by Harvard University Press, 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's book 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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