NCJ Number
121149
Editor(s)
J Q Wilson
Date Published
1989
Length
433 pages
Annotation
This analysis of the functioning and problems of government bureaucracies focuses on the way that each agency creates its own organizational culture based on its critical tasks and suggests that deregulation in government, like deregulation in business, would enable bureaucracies to do their jobs in a more responsible and effective manner.
Abstract
The text draws on studies of a wide variety of bureaucracies, including the military, the foreign service, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Social Security Administration, the United States Forest Service, regulatory commissions, the Postal Service, corrections systems, and the public schools. The discussion emphasizes the diversity of bureaucracies in terms of organizational culture, patterns of authority, and incentives. It also explains how the inflexibility and inefficiency of many government agencies in the United States result from the political system in which the bureaucracy is embedded rather than from the bureaucrats who run the agencies. The discussion also notes that reformers seeking to eliminate specific weaknesses in bureaucracies often produce new rules and procedures that make effective adaptation to changes impossible. Comparisons with foreign bureaucracies and suggestions for specific types of deregulation are also included. Chapter reference notes and name and subject indexes.