The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New Governance / Edition 1

by Odus V Elliott, Lester M Salamon

Overview

The Tools of Government is the first professional guide to the principles and practices of public administration in an age when governments no longer provide many services—but arrange for others to do so. Characterized by extensive collaboration among levels of government and between government and the private sector, this new approach to solving public problems presents many new important issues.
Comprehensive in scope, this new book offers a first hand look at the challenges faced by contracting out to nonprofit and profit sectors for grants, insurance, regulation, vouchers, cooperative arrangements, tax data, grants-in-aid, and others. The chapters examine over 20 different tools in use today and summarizes their basic features, patterns of usage, key tasks, political and substantive rational, and the major management challenges that each one poses.
International in coverage and application, this book is ideal for students, teachers, and scholars in public administration, management, public policy, economics, political science, and nonprofit management; managers and heads of state, local, and federal agencies; executives in foundations and other nonprofit organizations; and academic, government, and research libraries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195136654
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/22/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	688
Product dimensions:	10.20(w) x 7.40(h) x 2.10(d)

About the Author

Johns Hopkins University

Editorial Reviews

"offers a valuable and systematic way of evaluating alternative forms of program and service delivery. The tools framework will help us better measure government performance and understand what works."—Jonathan Breul, formerly Senior Specialist for Management, U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Currently Senior Analyst, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

"brings to light the accountability challenges that arise as systems become more and more complex and citizens are additional steps away from governance structures."—Scott Fosler, Professor, University of Maryland School of Public Affairs and former President, National Academy of Public Administration

"captures the increased complexity of instrument choice, as well as the innovations that have taken place in instrument design and implementation in recent decades not only in the United States, but also in other parts of the world."—Margaret Hill, Policy Research Initiative, Canada

"provides a solid framework for developing and understanding the new public-private arrangements that will be required for homeland security and regional governance, among other complex issues."—Neal Peirce, The Washington Post Writers Group

"Salamon et. al.'s Tools of Government book is an extremely useful resource for teaching."—Eugene Bardach, University of California at Berkeley

"Teachers of all types of policy classes, including economics and management, can usefully integrate the tools framework into their lessons."—Eugene Bardach, University of California at Berkeley

"helps us focus attention on the considerable innovativeness that has characterized the public sector in our lifetime."—Edward DeSeve, University of Maryland School of Public Affairs

"the tools approach should really drive government towards better tool selection, and better overall performance."—Mark Abramson, PriceWaterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of Government

"Lawyers have been relying on the tools approach since the Middle Ages, and it has worked for them...This book opens this approach up for public administrators and policy analysts, and they would be wise to seize it. It is a very powerful approach."—Sallyanne Payton, University of Michigan Law School

From the Publisher