Government Administration

Scholarly essays from a study of public administration undertaking by a career public servant with a Master of Arts in Public Administration. This collection of essays touch on a variety of topics of great interest to those interested in public service or anyone interesting in government or civics.

After being sworn in as president, Richard Nixon told the assembled crowd that "government will listen...Those who have been left out, we will try to bring in." But that same day, he obliterated those pledges of greater citizen control of government by signing National Security Decision Memorandum 2, a document that made sweeping changes to the national security power structure. Nixon's signature erased the influence that the Departments of State and Defense, as well as the CIA, had over war.

Public Procurement and Contract Administration: A Brief Introduction (2nd Edition) is a practical, beginner-focused guide designed to help new public procurement practitioners understand what happens after a contract is awarded—where many procurement processes succeed or fail. Written by Jorge A. Lynch T., an international public procurement and contract administration specialist with nearly 30 years of experience supporting public sector and donor-funded procurement across multiple country and project contexts, this book addresses one of the most persistent gaps in procurement capacity: ...

This book breaks down Project 2025’s key principles and goals with a clear, objective lens, giving you a front-row seat to the ideas behind Project 2025.

In Bush, Jean Edward Smith demonstrates that it was not Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, or Condoleezza Rice, but President Bush himself who took personal control of foreign policy. Bush drew on his deep religious conviction that important foreign-policy decisions were simply a matter of good versus evil. Domestically, he overreacted to 9/11 and endangered Americans' civil liberties.

An accessible and balanced account, Food Politics laid the groundwork for today's food revolution and changed the way we respond to food industry marketing practices. Now, a new introduction and concluding chapter bring us up to date on the key events in that movement. This pathbreaking, prize-winning book helps us understand more clearly than ever before what we eat and why. This book is published by University of California Press.

“A gripping page-turner that doubles as both a warning and an inspiration.” —Samantha Power, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of A Problem from Hell A civil servant discovers his breaking point when the Trump administration’s cruelty and indifference threaten to violate the oath he swore...

“Conquer the CGFM GE Exam: Your Guide to the Certified Government Financial Manager Governmental Environment Exam (Examination 1)” is an essential resource for anyone preparing to become a Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM). This comprehensive guide covers all key topics outlined by the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) for the Governmental Environment Exam, including the organization, structure, and authority of government at federal, state, and local levels. It delves into the legally-based implications of government finance, exploring sovereignty, taxation, and ...

This first real look inside Team Obama mixes political warfare and big-business shakeups in equal proportions, and comes from a uniquely informed source. Steve Rattner is not just the man brought in by the president to save the auto industry, he is a former New York Times financial reporter who also earned a place among the top tier of Wall Street's most informed investment bankers and corporate experts.

The Assassins' Gate, so dubbed by American soldiers, is the entrance to the American zone in the city of Baghdad. In 2003, the United States blazed into Iraq to depose dictator Saddam Hussein. But after three years and unknown thousands killed, that country faces an escalating civil war and an uncertain fate. How did it get to this point?

From the New York Times–bestselling author Stephen M. Walt, The Hell of Good Intentions dissects the faults and foibles of recent American foreign policy—explaining why it has been plagued by disasters like the “forever wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan and outlining what can be done to fix...

This fast-paced, behind-the-scenes narrative tells the inside story of how the Bush administration used bad intelligence to sell and then justify the Iraq war. Veteran reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn take the reader behind the scenes at the White House, the CIA, the Pentagon, the State Department, and Congress, where controversial decisions and turf battles were fought in the highest circles of the Bush administration.

When COVID-19 broke out, Dr. Aaron Kheriaty’s work put him on the front lines. Realizing that the mental, physical, and economic toll of lockdowns was catastrophic, he began to protest that the cure was worse than the disease—an intolerable heresy. When he refused vaccination because he had natural immunity from a previous infection, the University of California, Irvine, medical school fired him. He fought back, in the courts and in the media, and has become a reliable source of truth amid official obfuscation and censorship.

Lean thinking has revolutionized manufacturing—but its power doesn't end there. In Lean in Government and Education, internationally recognized Lean expert Mohammed Hamed Ahmed Soliman takes readers beyond the factory floor to explore how Lean principles can radically improve public sector services and educational institutions. Through clear explanations, practical strategies, and real-world case studies, this book reveals how tools like Kanban, Takt Time, Heijunka, and Continuous Flow can eliminate waste, improve service delivery, and bring agility to rigid bureaucracies. Whether you're ...

Instant #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller From the Washington Post journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta—the definitive account of the Trump administration’s tragic mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the chaos, incompetence, and craven politicization...

In the US, there is a wide-ranging network of at least 370 food banks, and more than 60,000 hunger-relief organizations such as food pantries and meal programs. And yet hunger still affects one in nine Americans. What are we doing wrong? In Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries, Katie Martin argues that if handing out more and more food was the answer, we would have solved the problem of hunger decades ago. Martin instead presents a new model for charitable food, one where success is measured not by pounds of food distributed but by lives changed.

How has the United States, with more resources than any nation, developed a healthcare system that delivers much poorer results, at near double the cost of any other developed country - such that legendary seer Warren Buffett calls the Medical Industrial Complex "the tapeworm of American economic competitiveness"?

In this "meticulously researched" account (New York Times Book Review), a Pulitzer Prize-winning author examines the dangers of a failing public health system unequipped to handle large-scale global risks like a coronavirus pandemic.

You've sat through the slide deck. The commitment was evident. Then you returned to your floor — where a policy analyst had been using AI for six months without authorization, and a data team had integrated a third-party AI service transmitting information that should never have left the organization. None of it was malicious. None of it was covered by the strategy. PUBLIC AI is written for the senior civil servants who live in this gap — secretaries general, deputy directors, heads of unit — the layer where ministerial commitments become operational behavior, and where the distance ...

In Health Justice Now, Timothy Faust explains what single payer is, why we don't yet have it, and how it can be won. He identifies the actors that have misled us for profit and political gain, dispels the myth that healthcare needs to be personally expensive, shows how we can smoothly transition to a new model, and reveals the slate of humane and progressive reforms that we can only achieve with single payer as the springboard.