The classic book on the way American government agencies work and how they can be made to work better -- the "masterwork" of political scientist James Q. Wilson (The Economist) In Bureaucracy, the distinguished scholar James Q. Wilson examines a wide range of bureaucracies, including the US Army, the FBI, the CIA, the FCC, and the Social Security Administration, providing the first comprehensive, in-depth analysis of what government agencies do, why they operate the way they do, and how they might become more responsible and effective. It is the essential guide to understanding how American government works.

Street-Level Bureaucracy is an insightful study of how public service workers, in effect, function as policy decision makers, as they wield their considerable discretion in the day-to-day implementation of public programs.

Bureaucracy is an age-old form of government that has survived since ancient times; it has provided order and persisted with durability, dependability, and stability. The popularity of the first edition of this book, entitled Handbook of Bureaucracy, is testimony to the endurance of bureaucratic institutions. Reflecting the accelerated globalization of corporate capitalism, cultures, and governance systems and the additional complexity in the tasks of public administrators, Bureaucracy and Administration presents a comprehensive, global perspective that highlights the dramatic changes of the last 15 years in governance, business, and public administration. Reflects Dramatic Changes in Governance, Business, and Public Administration Through articles contributed by international experts, this volume provides a thorough analysis of bureaucracies worldwide and their effect on politics, economics, and society. The book begins by exploring the historical antecedents of bureaucracy, looking at some of the great ancient civilizations and their administrative traditions, achievements, and contributions to modern administration and governance systems. In the next section, leading scholars from political science, sociology, governance, and public administration present a detailed review of theoretical and conceptual perspectives on bureaucracies and bureaucratic politics. Following an examination of bureaucracy and public management and presenting topics such as the response to Hurricane Katrina, training of bureaucrats, and ethical issues, contributors review bureaucratic politics in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The book concludes with a focused analysis of bureaucracy, change, reform, and revolution, highlighting implications for future governance and administration. Comprising theoretical and empirical analyses and including perspectives which span from ancient to modern times, this volume comprehensively and authoritatively advances the knowledge of the nature, role, and function of bureaucracy as the core of sound governance and administration around the world.

Author Ludwig von Mises was concerned with the spread of socialist ideals and the increasing bureaucratization of economic life. While he does not deny the necessity of certain bureaucratic structures for the smooth operation of any civilized state, he disagrees with the extent to which it has come to dominate the public life of European countries and the United States. The author's purpose is to demonstrate that the negative aspects of bureaucracy are not so much a result of bad policies or corruption as the public tends to think but are the bureaucratic structures due to the very tasks these structures have to deal with. The main body of the book is therefore devoted to a comparison between private enterprise on the one hand and bureaucratic agencies/public enterprise on the other.

A thorough update to this well-regarded political history of American public administration. In this new edition of his provocative book Bureaucracy and Self-Government, Brian J. Cook reconsiders his thesis regarding the inescapable tension between the ideal of self-government and the reality of administratively centered governance. Revisiting his historical exploration of competing conceptions of politics, government, and public administration, Cook offers a novel way of thinking constitutionally about public administration that transcends debates about “big government.” Cook enriches his historical analysis with new scholarship and extends that analysis to the present, taking account of significant developments since the mid-1990s. Each chapter has been updated, and two new chapters sharpen Cook’s argument for recognizing a constitutive dimension in normative theorizing about public administration. The second edition also includes reviews of Jeffersonian impacts on administrative theory and practice and Jacksonian developments in national administrative structures and functions, a look at the administrative theorizing that presaged progressive reforms in civil service, and insight into the confounding complexities that characterize public thinking about administration in a postmodern political order.

This book aims to develop a useful theory of bureaucratic decision making because bureaus make critical decisions that shape the economic, educational, political, social, moral, & even religious lives of nearly everyone on earth.

Given the influence of public bureaucracies in policymaking and implementation, Steven J. Balla and William T. Gormley assess their performance using four key perspectives—bounded rationality, principal-agent theory, interest group mobilization, and network theory—to help students develop an analytic framework for evaluating bureaucratic accountability. The new Fourth Edition provides a thorough review of bureaucracy during the Obama and Trump administrations, as well as new attention to state and local level examples and the role of bureaucratic values.