The first book to explore the tension between U.S. presidents and federal agencies from the perspective of careerists in the executive branch.Why do presidents face so many seemingly avoidable bureaucratic conflicts? And why do these clashes usually intensify toward the end of presidential administrations, when a commander-in-chief's administrative goals tend to be more explicit and better aligned with their appointed leadership's prerogatives? In Rethinking the...

Much has changed in US politics since the historic 2008 election. While the press covers the actions and agendas of the new administration, other impacts of this political shift have not received as much attention. These changes have forced the nation to rethink the necessary role of government, the role of the private market, the impact of science, technology, and information, and, ultimately, our place in the world.What Do We Expect From Our Government? provides a glimpse...

Designed to help both graduate students and start-up researchers with their own case study research, this book presents 21 individual applications together with cross-referenced discussions of key methodological issues. Many of the applications—including a wide array of single-case studies useful as examples for solo researchers—have been shortened or re-written expressly for this book.

Developing countries commonly adopt reforms to improve their governments yet they usually fail to produce more functional and effective governments. Andrews argues that reforms often fail to make governments better because they are introduced as signals to gain short-term support. These signals introduce unrealistic best practices that do not fit developing country contexts and are not considered relevant by implementing agents. The result is a set of new forms that do not function. Howeve...

Every school board adopts a unique governing style which affects the way the district is managed. This book identifies some of those styles and examines their potential impact on district administration, and ultimately on student achievement. The book also clarifies the role of school boards in unequivocal terms, discusses board-superintendent relations, and offers several recommendations and critical takeaways for education stakeholders. The authors doctoral research which gave rise to th...

Proponents of education reform are committed to the idea that all children should receive a quality education, and that all of them have a capacity to learn and grow, whatever their ethnicity or economic circumstances. But though recent years have seen numerous reform efforts, the resources available to children in different municipalities still vary enormously, and despite landmark cases of the civil rights movement and ongoing pushes to enact diverse and inclusive curricula, racial and e...

Social science research has frequently found conflict between Latinos and African Americans in urban politics and governance, as well as in the groups' attitudes toward one another. Rodney E. Hero and Robert R. Preuhs analyze whether conflict between these two groups is also found in national politics. Based on extensive evidence on the activities of minority advocacy groups in national politics and the behavior of minority members of Congress, the authors find the relationship between the...

This book examines reform in American education over the past fifty years and against this backdrop presents a compelling analysis of why contemporary voucher plans and charter schools have yet to fulfill the expectations of their advocates. It is the only book to date to attempt a comprehensive synthesis and analysis of the emerging research base on vouchers and charter schools. Suitable for courses in school policy, school reform, school leadership, or educational issues, it will also be...

While few would quarrel with the goal of the No Child Left Behind legislation, the nation is badly divided over whether the law is having a positive effect on our schools. At the same time, it is also true that most Americans, including many professional educators, have only a limited understanding of the content and scope of the legislation. As we are currently engaged in a national debate about the future role of the federal government in the field of education, it is essential that peop...

Arising from a research project funded by Danish International Development Assistance, Management and Change in Africa includes results of management surveys across 15 sub-Saharan countries and of organizational surveys taken across a range of sectors in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Cameroon. It combines methodology, theory and case examples to explore thoroughly the influences on management in Africa and attempts to push the boundaries of cross-cultural theory. In doing so, i...

Human beings are social animals. Yet despite vast amounts of research into political decision making, very little attention has been devoted to its social dimensions. In political science, social relationships are generally thought of as mere sources of information, rather than active influences on one’s political decisions.Drawing upon data from settings as diverse as South Los Angeles and Chicago’s wealthy North Shore, Betsy Sinclair shows that social networks do not merely infor...

One of the major dilemmas facing the administrative state in the United States today is discerning how best to harness for public purposes the dynamism of markets, the passion and commitment of nonprofit and volunteer organizations, and the public-interest-oriented expertise of the career civil service. Researchers across a variety of disciplines, fields, and subfields have independently investigated aspects of the formidable challenges, choices, and opportunities this dilemma poses for go...