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.
View interactive charts visualizing the Thickening of Government.
“A brilliant and insightful analysis and action plan to make our government work. Bravo!”
Donna Shalala, former Secretary of Health and Human Services and President
of Miami University
“Paul Light has made a major contribution to rethinking federal bureacracy at a crucial time in its
evolution. With the retirement of the baby boom bureacrats there will be a greater opportunity to rethink
and reshape the federal government than at any time since the New Deal. If it is done with the kind of
thoughtfulness Light proposes it could profoundly improve the delivery of government services and the
quality of the federal work force.”
Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the
House
“Ever since Hurricane Katrina, we have bemoaned the costs of incompetent government. But Paul Light has
done much more: He has focused his enormous energies and brilliant mind on exactly how to create a government
that works well. That's why Light's voice is so important in our national debate, and why this is such an
important book. Whatever your idealogy, you need to pay attention to what Light sayas about how to achieve
competence and even excellence in government. The next president needs to read this book, and so do the
voters who have a right to expect something better in the coming years.”
E.J. Dionne, Jr., author of “Why Americans Hate Politics and Souled Out”
“So, not only the presidential candidates, but everyone running for Congress should read this book. If our political leaders do not confront this pattern of desperate concern, says this sober scholar, "they are likely to preside over a string of meltdowns that will make the federal response to Hurricane Katrina look like a minor mistake.”
“[T]he next administration had best heed Light's call to focus on getting
a coherent, shorter nomination and confirmation process that encourages
talented people to sign up for government service.”
