Suchergebnisse

Dismantling Democratic States, Ezra Suleiman, Princeton and Oxford,
Princeton University Press, 2003, pp. 327.At the heart of this comparative text is a fundamental critique of the
substitution of the norms of the market place for those of collective
public interest. As citizens are transformed into ubiquitous
consumers, so the reinvention of government raises
profound questions about the public domain and its role. To this extent,
the New Public Management (NPM) is a vehicle for a deeper ideological
program, differentiating it from earlier reform endeavours. However,
Suleiman contends it is a global movement very much constrained by
cultural contexts. The reluctance of countries such as France or Japan to
implement far-reaching reforms reflects deeply embedded socio-cultural and
political values that underpin the public sphere, unlike prevalent values
in the United States.

Bureaucracy is a much-maligned feature of contemporary government. And yet the aftermath of September 11 has opened the door to a reassessment of the role of a skilled civil service in the survival and viability of democratic society. Here, Ezra Suleiman offers a timely and powerful corrective to the widespread view that bureaucracy is the source of democracy's ills. This is a book as much about good governance as it is about bureaucratic organizations. Suleiman asks: Is democratic governance hindered without an effective instrument in the hands of the legitimately elected political leadershi

Between Liberalism and Capitalism / Stephen L. Elkin -- The Capitalist state in context / Roger Benjamin and Raymond Duvall -- Contemporary Marxism on the autonomy, efficacy, and legitimacy of the Capitalist state / David Braybrooke -- Public interest, private interest, and the Democratic polity / Peter H. Aranson and Peter C. Ordeshook -- Pluralism in its place / Stephen L. Elkin -- Political futures / Norman Furniss.

This text offers a corrective to the view that bureaucracy is the source of democracy's ills. It argues that 'government reinvention' has limited bureaucracy's capacity to adequately serve the public good.