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Bureaucracy

What Government Agencies Do And Why They Do It

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Contributors

By James Q. Wilson

Formats and Prices

On Sale
Jan 30, 1991
Page Count
464 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780465007851

Price

$25.99

Price

$32.99 CAD

Format

  1. ebook

Format:

  1. Trade Paperback $25.99 $32.99 CAD
  2. ebook $16.99 $21.99 CAD

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The classic book on the way American government agencies work and how they can be made to work better — the “masterwork” of political scientist James Q. Wilson (The Economist)

In Bureaucracy, the distinguished scholar James Q. Wilson examines a wide range of bureaucracies, including the US Army, the FBI, the CIA, the FCC, and the Social Security Administration, providing the first comprehensive, in-depth analysis of what government agencies do, why they operate the way they do, and how they might become more responsible and effective. It is the essential guide to understanding how American government works.

Genre:

  • Nonfiction
  • Political Science
  • American Government
  • National
  • Government
  • National

James Q. Wilson (1931-2012) was a professor at Harvard, UCLA, and Pepperdine University. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003, among numerous other honors. He is also the author of Moral Sense and Moral Judgement, among many other books.

  • "May well be the best book now available on bureaucracy in America."
    Paul Starr, The New Republic
  • "Wilson is our Weber and this is his summa ... A sprightly, irreverent and profoundly serious inquiry as to how you make a nation work."
    Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
  • "A gold mine of interesting, even unique observations about bureaucratic government on all levels."
    Christian Science Monitor
  • "Immediately takes its place as the indispensable one-volume guide to American national administration."
    Aron Wildavsky, Los Angeles Times Book Review
  • "Wilson is a remarkably clear thinker. It is unlikely that anyone in the foreseeable future will master so much research about so many agencies at the government level."
    Tom Peters, The Washingtonian

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James Q. Wilson

About the Author

James Q. Wilson (1931-2012) was a professor at Harvard, UCLA, and Pepperdine University. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003, among numerous other honors. He is also the author of Moral Sense and Moral Judgement, among many other books.

Learn more about this author

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