Dismantling Democratic States (ebook)

Argumento de Dismantling Democratic States (ebook)

"This is a first-rate book. In it, Ezra Suleiman, perhaps the academic world's most established expert on the politics of administration, takes on the most influential movement to affect government since the innovation of politically independent bureaucracies: 'New Public Management'. Not only is this book an important contribution to debates on public policy reform, as well as to the literature on democratic transitions, but it has a real political importance that goes beyond the academy. It is essential that the arguments made by Suleiman reach the eyes and ears of those responsible for public policy."--Harvey Feigenbaum, George Washington University, coauthor of Shrinking the State

"This is an important book that is not afraid to address big and important questions. It should be widely read."--Bert A. Rockman, The Ohio State University, coauthor of In the Web of Politics

"The relentless and prolonged assault by politicians and the public on the competence and motives of their government bureaucracies is slowly but surely undermining democracy in the Americas and Europe. . . . The book arrives during a moment of particularly nasty relations between major parts of Washington's bureaucracy and a conservative Republican president who bemoans having to live and work here. This is a happy accident of timing. The book has no partisan ax to grind, and its insights could be useful to the Bush administration--both at home and in its unexpected bonanza of nation-building projects abroad."--Jim Hoagland, The Washington Post

"Suleiman demonstrates precisely how legitimacy requires bureaucracy that is effective and how new and old democracies alike require bureaucracies at each stage of development. . . . This is an important work and should be considered by those concerned with the proper functioning of democratic states."--Spencer D. Bakich, Virginia Quarterly Review

"In this powerful defense of the modern bureaucratic state, Suleiman argues that decades of attacks on government bureaucracy by Western politicians have undermined their own authority, weakened citizenship, and imperiled democratic governance. . . . Suleiman acknowledges that a leaner, more efficient state may be necessary today, but he makes a compelling case for the continuing necessity of the bureaucratic machine."--Foreign Affairs0