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Government Is Good

Government Is Good
Author: Douglas J. Amy
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2011
Genre: Democracy
ISBN: 1457506580

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Why a book defending government? Because for decades, right-wing forces in this country have engaged in a relentless and irresponsible campaign of vicious government bashing. Conservatives and libertarians have demonized government, attacked basic safety net programs like Medicare, and undermined vital regulations that protect consumers, investors, workers, and the environment. This book takes on this anti-government movement and shows that most of its criticisms of this institution are highly exaggerated, misleading, or just plain wrong. In reality, American government - despite its flaws - plays a valuable and indispensable role in promoting the public good. Most government programs are working well and are actually improving the lives of Americans in innumerable ways. Democratic government is a vital tool for making our world a better place; and if we want an America that is prosperous, healthy, secure, well-educated, just, compassionate, and unpolluted, we need a strong, active, and well-funded public sector. Part I: Why Government is Good. The section of the book describes how government acts as a force for good in society. One chapter chronicles a day in the life of an average middle-class American and identifies the myriad ways that government programs improve our lives. Other chapters describe the forgotten achievements of government; how government is the only way to effectively promote public values like justice and equality; and how a free market economy would be impossible without the elaborate legal and regulatory infrastructure provided by government. Part II: The War on Government. This section of the book chronicles the unrelenting assault on government being waged by conservative forces in this country. Chapters describe how cuts in social programs and rollbacks of regulations have harmed the health, safety, and welfare of millions of Americans and how these assaults have taken place on many fronts - in Congress, the administrative branch, and the federal courts, as well as on the state and local level. Also addressed: how the right's radical anti-government agenda is out of touch with the views and priorities of most Americans, and what the real truth is about government deficits. Part III: How to Revitalize Democracy and Government. There are, in fact, some problems with American government, and we need to address these if we are to restore Americans' faith in this institution. One of the main problems with our government is that it is not accountable and responsive enough to the public. Moneyed special interests too often win out over the public interest. Chapters in this section describe this problem and how we can fix it. There are several reforms - including public financing of elections - that could help our government live up to its democratic ideals. The final chapter discusses strategies for building a pro-government coalition in this country.


American Government

American Government
Author: Frank Abbott Magruder
Publisher:
Total Pages: 508
Release: 1917
Genre: United States
ISBN:

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Forgotten Americans

Forgotten Americans
Author: Isabel Sawhill
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2018-09-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0300241062

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A sobering account of a disenfranchised American working class and important policy solutions to the nation’s economic inequalities One of the country’s leading scholars on economics and social policy, Isabel Sawhill addresses the enormous divisions in American society—economic, cultural, and political—and what might be done to bridge them. Widening inequality and the loss of jobs to trade and technology has left a significant portion of the American workforce disenfranchised and skeptical of governments and corporations alike. And yet both have a role to play in improving the country for all. Sawhill argues for a policy agenda based on mainstream values, such as family, education, and work. While many have lost faith in government programs designed to help them, there are still trusted institutions on both the local and federal level that can deliver better job opportunities and higher wages to those who have been left behind. At the same time, the private sector needs to reexamine how it trains and rewards employees. This book provides a clear-headed and middle-way path to a better-functioning society in which personal responsibility is honored and inclusive capitalism and more broadly shared growth are once more the norm.


The Trouble with America

The Trouble with America
Author: Kenneth J. Long
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2009-01-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0739132717

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The Trouble with America critiques the theory and practice of American government, focusing on the fatal flaws of America's core political arrangements. Institutionalized pluralism, the structural dispersal of power, generates government too weak to solve our public problems. American constitutionalism, the limitation of government power and authority, protects property rights far better than it defends our civil liberties, and it offers little or no protection for non-citizens. Capitalism is a hyper-competitive and grossly unfair economic system, which rewards pre-existing wealth far better than hard work or talent, and encourages petty materialist consumption of mostly low-quality goods, undermining taste as well as fairness. Taken together, pluralism, constitutionalism, and capitalism in America harm our society in a myriad of ways, leaving us with inadequate representation, poor leadership, social and political paralysis and irresponsibility, unrealistic self-images, and scandalously poor domestic and foreign policies. This book will prove a valuable supplement in American government courses, an alternative to the centrist material currently dominating textbooks on this subject.


American Government With a Consideration of the Problems of Democracy

American Government With a Consideration of the Problems of Democracy
Author: Frank Abbott Magruder
Publisher: Forgotten Books
Total Pages: 500
Release: 2015-06-24
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 9781330328675

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Excerpt from American Government With a Consideration of the Problems of Democracy The aims of American Government may be summed up under four heads: - First, to impress upon the pupil his responsibility, as a future citizen, for the development of better government. Second, to show how the state has developed from a simple organization for defense to the complex socialized society of to-day; and to make it clear that government is not operated according to preconceived theories, hut is a living organism developed by the people to meet the needs resulting from changing conditions; to show, for example, that the Constitution of the United States is not a dead contract, but a living agreement which has developed with time and has adapted itself to economic and social conditions. Third, to explain the actual operation of the National, State, and Local governments, emphasizing the functions of government without neglecting the necessary details of frame-work. Fourth, to make plain the influence of the judiciary; and to present the political and social problems of to-day, such as the initiative, referendum, recall, short ballot, woman suffrage, industrial education, and prohibition. The author has endeavored to make all important facts stand out clearly, by separating details from the main text, by explaining fully in footnotes all necessary technical terms, and by placing interesting collateral material in the questions for discussion. The text is further simplified by brief examples, outlines, diagrams, maps, and illustrations taken from all sections of the country, the details regarding each State being given in their proper setting. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.


Innovation in American Government

Innovation in American Government
Author: Alan A. Altshuler
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1997
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780815703570

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Innovation does happen--even in government! Despite all the news about government scandals and failures, public officials are innovative. This book analyzes numerous examples of ingenious problem solving--in education in California, in the Department of Juvenile Justice in New York City, in government operations in Minnesota, in human service programs across the country. All organizations, both public and private, need innovation, but making innovation work in government is a greater challenge than doing so in business. This book identifies a number of dilemmas that complicate the process of innovating in American government. For example, there is the "trust dilemma": Innovation may be necessary to establish public faith in the ability of government agencies to perform, but before the public grants agencies a license to be truly innovative, it needs to be convinced that these same agencies have the ability to perform. The contributors to this book analyze a number of issues raised by the task of innovation, including: Who is responsible for innovating? How can innovative individuals and teams be held accountable? What kinds of organizational arrangements beget the most innovation? How can innovation be fostered in agencies devoted to routinization? How should innovative ideas be disseminated? And what exactly is an "innovation" anyway? The contributors gathered data for this book from winners and finalists in the Ford Foundation's Innovations Awards program, as well as from other innovators and innovations. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Babak J. Armajani, Michael Barzelay, W. Lance Bennett, Paul Berman, Richard F. Elmore, Robert M. Entman, Lee S. Friedman, Thomas N. Gilmore, Olivia Golden, James Krantz, Laurence E. Lynn Jr., Mark H. Moore, Beryl Nelson, Ellen Schall, Malcolm Sparrow, William Spelman, Deborah A. Stone, and Marc D. Zegans.


Government's Greatest Achievements

Government's Greatest Achievements
Author: Paul C. Light
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2010-12-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0815716370

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In an era of promises to create smaller, more limited government, Americans often forget that the federal government has amassed an extraordinary record of successes over the past half century. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, it helped rebuild Europe after World War II, conquered polio and other life-threatening diseases, faced down communism, attacked racial discrimination, reduced poverty among the elderly, and put men on the moon. In Government's Greatest Achievements, Paul C. Light explores the federal government's most successful accomplishments over the previous five decades and anticipates the most significant challenges of the next half century. While some successes have come through major legislation such as the 1965 Medicare Act, or large-scale efforts like the Apollo space program, most have been achieved through collections of smaller, often unheralded statutes. Drawing on survey responses from 230 historians and 220 political scientists at colleges and universities nationwide, Light ranks and summarizes the fifty greatest government achievements from 1944 to 1999. The achievements were ranked based on difficulty, importance, and degree of success. Through a series of twenty vignettes, he paints a vivid picture of the most intense government efforts to improve the quality of life both at home and abroad—from enhancing health care and workplace safety, to expanding home ownership, to improving education, to protecting endangered species, to strengthening the national defense. The book also examines how Americans perceive government's greatest achievements, and reveals what they consider to be its most significant failures. America is now calling on the government to resolve another complex, difficult problem: the defeat of terrorism. Light concludes by discussing this enormous task, as well as government's other greatest priorities for the next fifty years.


Good Enough for Government Work

Good Enough for Government Work
Author: Amy E. Lerman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2019-06-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 022663020X

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American government is in the midst of a reputation crisis. An overwhelming majority of citizens—Republicans and Democrats alike—hold negative perceptions of the government and believe it is wasteful, inefficient, and doing a generally poor job managing public programs and providing public services. When social problems arise, Americans are therefore skeptical that the government has the ability to respond effectively. It’s a serious problem, argues Amy E. Lerman, and it will not be a simple one to fix. With Good Enough for Government Work, Lerman uses surveys, experiments, and public opinion data to argue persuasively that the reputation of government is itself an impediment to government’s ability to achieve the common good. In addition to improving its efficiency and effectiveness, government therefore has an equally critical task: countering the belief that the public sector is mired in incompetence. Lerman takes readers through the main challenges. Negative perceptions are highly resistant to change, she shows, because we tend to perceive the world in a way that confirms our negative stereotypes of government—even in the face of new information. Those who hold particularly negative perceptions also begin to “opt out” in favor of private alternatives, such as sending their children to private schools, living in gated communities, and refusing to participate in public health insurance programs. When sufficient numbers of people opt out of public services, the result can be a decline in the objective quality of public provision. In this way, citizens’ beliefs about government can quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy, with consequences for all. Lerman concludes with practical solutions for how the government might improve its reputation and roll back current efforts to eliminate or privatize even some of the most critical public services.