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Also by Paul C. Light:

A Government Ill Executed, June 2008
Hardcover
The Four Pillars of High Performance, December 2004
Hardcover

A GOVERNMENT ILL EXECUTED
By: Paul C. Light

The Decline of the Federal Service and How to Reverse It

Harvard University Press
June 2008
On Sale: May 21, 2008
288 pages
ISBN: 0674028082
EAN: 9780674028081
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction

The federal government is having increasing difficulty faithfully executing the laws, which is what Alexander Hamilton called “the true test” of a good government. This book diagnoses the symptoms, explains their general causes, and proposes ways to improve the effectiveness of the federal government. Employing Hamilton’s seven measures of an energetic federal service, Paul Light shows how the government is wanting in each measure.

After assessing the federal report card, Light offers a comprehensive agenda for reform, including new laws limiting the number of political appointees, reducing the layers of government management, reducing the size of government as its baby-boom employees retire, revitalizing the federal career, and reducing the heavy outsourcing of federal work. Although there are many ways to fix each of the seven problems with government, only a comprehensive agenda will bring the kind of reform needed to reverse the overall erosion of the capacity to faithfully execute all the laws.

Media Buzz

NewsHour with Jim Lehrer - March 11, 2009
NewsHour with Jim Lehrer - March 9, 2009
All Things Considered - November 10, 2008
Talk of the Nation - October 6, 2008
Lou Dobbs Tonight - September 8, 2008
Larry King Live - July 4, 2008
Marketplace - PRI - June 30, 2008
Lou Dobbs Tonight - June 25, 2008
Lou Dobbs Tonight - June 4, 2008