From Warfare State to Welfare State

From Warfare State to Welfare State
Author: Marc Allen Eisner
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2010-11-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780271043500

When American history is divided into discrete eras, the New Deal stands, along with the Civil War, as one of those distinctive events that forever change the trajectory of the nation&’s development. The story of the New Deal provides a convenient tool of periodization and a means of interpreting U.S. history and the significance of contemporary political cleavages. Eisner&’s careful examination of the historical record, however, leads one to the conclusion that there was precious little &“new&” in the New Deal. If one wishes to find an event that was clearly transformative, the author argues, one must go back to World War I. From Warfare State to Welfare State reveals that the federal government lagged far behind the private sector in institutional development in the early twentieth century. In order to cope with the crisis of war, government leaders opted to pursue a path of &“compensatory state-building&” by seeking out alliances with private-sector associations. But these associations pursued their own interests in a way that imposed severe constraints on the government&’s autonomy and effectiveness in dealing with the country&’s problems&—a handicap that accounts for many of the shortcomings of government today.

The History of the United States Civil Service

The History of the United States Civil Service
Author: Lorenzo Castellani
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2021-03-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000350533

The History of the United States Civil Service: From the Postwar Years to the Twenty-First Century provides a broad, comprehensive overview of the US civil service in the postwar period and examines the reforms and changes throughout that time. The author situates the history of the civil service into a wider context, considering political, social and cultural changes that occurred and have been influential in the history of American government. The book analyzes the development of administrative reorganizations, administrative reforms, personnel policy and political thought on public administration. It also underlines continuity and changes in the structures, organization, and personnel management of the federal civil service, and the evolution of the role of presidential control over federal bureaucracy. Taking an essential, but often neglected organization as its focus, the text offers a rich, historical analysis of an important institution in American politics. This book will be of interest to teachers and students of American political history and the history of government, as well as more specifically, the Presidency, Public Administration, and Administrative Law.

Making the Modern American Fiscal State

Making the Modern American Fiscal State
Author: Ajay K. Mehrotra
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 447
Release: 2013-09-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107436001

At the turn of the twentieth century, the US system of public finance underwent a dramatic transformation. The late nineteenth-century regime of indirect, hidden, partisan, and regressive taxes was eclipsed in the early twentieth century by a direct, transparent, professionally administered, and progressive tax system. This book uncovers the contested roots and paradoxical consequences of this fundamental shift in American tax law and policy. It argues that the move toward a regime of direct and graduated taxation marked the emergence of a new fiscal polity - a new form of statecraft that was guided not simply by the functional need for greater revenue but by broader social concerns about economic justice, civic identity, bureaucratic capacity, and public power. Between the end of Reconstruction and the onset of the Great Depression, the intellectual, legal, and administrative foundations of the modern fiscal state first took shape. This book explains how and why this new fiscal polity came to be.

Governing the Contemporary Administrative State

Governing the Contemporary Administrative State
Author: Jarle Trondal
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2023-05-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3031280083

This book examines the transformation of the administrative state, since it was first coined by Dwight Waldo seventy years ago. Empirically, the book assesses how the administrative state is facing endogenous reforms through administrative devolution, as well as exogenous shifts by the rise of multilevel administrative systems and international bureaucracy. Facing dual shifts, the book offers a comprehensive analysis of how the administrative state handles three interconnected challenges: first, a need for innovation and reform, as well as stability and robustness; second, administrative autonomy among regulatory bodies, as well as political leadership and democratic accountability; and third, nation-state sovereignty and international collaboration. It also highlights the robust character of the administrative state by demonstrating profound stability in public governance even during times of profound turbulence. It will appeal to scholars and students of public policy, public administration and global governance, as well as practitioners interested in new developments in public governance.

Louis D. Brandeis and the Making of Regulated Competition, 1900-1932

Louis D. Brandeis and the Making of Regulated Competition, 1900-1932
Author: Gerald Berk
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2009-06-22
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0521425964

This book provides an innovative interpretation of industrialization and statebuilding in the U.S. by tracing the development of regulated competition. Conceptualized by Brandeis and implemented by trade associations and the Federal Trade Commission, regulated competition checked economic power by channeling competition from predation into improvement in products and production processes.

The Oxford Handbook of American Bureaucracy

The Oxford Handbook of American Bureaucracy
Author: Robert F. Durant
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 887
Release: 2010-10-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199238952

With engaging new contributions from the major figures in the fields of public administration, public management, and public policy The Oxford Handbook of American Bureaucracy is a key point of reference for anyone working in American politics today.

A History of Public Administration in the United States

A History of Public Administration in the United States
Author: Mordecai Lee
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 510
Release: 2023-10-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1527532372

Nowadays, we all tend to complain about bureaucracy, if only because it touches our daily lives, sometimes in frustrating ways. This book examines the gradual emergence of American public administration. As a history of American bureaucracy, it focuses on key and pivotal events in its evolution and development. Chapters highlight major issues and controversies including the anti-democratic origins of the field, Congressional hostility to the bureaucracy, if appointed city managers should be subject to recall by voters, early limits on the role of women, and the establishment of a membership association for practitioners and academics alike—an unusual feature in the American professional world. This book will appeal to university students, university faculty members, and academic libraries interested in American government and US history. The subject is at the intersection of several academic disciplines, including public administration, American history, political science, public management, management history, and organization theory.

Comparative Grand Strategy

Comparative Grand Strategy
Author: Thierry Balzacq
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2019-05-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0192577557

This book develops a new approach in explaining how a nation's Grand Strategy is constituted, how to assess its merits, and how grand strategies may be comparatively evaluated within a broader framework. The volume responds to three key problems common to both academia and policymaking. First, the literature on the concept of grand strategy generally focuses on the United States, offering no framework for comparative analysis. Indeed, many proponents of US grand strategy suggest that the concept can only be applied, at most, to a very few great powers such as China and Russia. Second, characteristically it remains prescriptive rather than explanatory, ignoring the central conundrum of why differing countries respond in contrasting ways to similar pressures. Third, it often understates the significance of domestic politics and policymaking in the formulation of grand strategies - emphasizing mainly systemic pressures. This book addresses these problems. It seeks to analyze and explain grand strategies through the intersection of domestic and international politics in ten countries grouped distinctively as great powers (The G5), regional powers (Brazil and India) and pivotal powers hostile to each other who are able to destabilize the global system (Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia). The book thus employs a comparative framework that describes and explains why and how domestic actors and mechanisms, coupled with external pressures, create specific national strategies. Overall, the book aims to fashion a valid, cross-contextual framework for an emerging research program on grand strategic analysis.