bureaucracy

"The election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency shocked the political establishment, triggering a wave of hysteria among the bicoastal elite that may yet never subside. The biggest shockwaves of all however were felt not in the progressive parishes of Manhattan or San Francisco, but in the halls of the political elite's cherished and oft-overlooked center of power: Washington, D.C.'s sprawling 'administrative state.' For President Trump represented an existential threat to its denizens, which came to be known as 'swamp creatures.' How did it come to pass that the 'deconstruction' of this obscure institution - the 'draining of the swamp' - would become a core aim of the Trump administration, impacting everything from judicial appointments to the federal budget and regulatory policy? Could public aversion to policies and practices for which the administrative state was sometimes surreptitiously and other times overtly responsible explain President Trump's rise? What was the intellectual basis for the argument that the administrative state need be dismantled in the first place? The answers to these questions and many more lie in the underappreciated but revolutionary scholarship of Professor John Marini, collected in his timely, comprehensive, accessible new book, Unmasking the Administrative State"--Provided by publisher.

"The story of the dramatic postwar struggle over the proper role of citizens and government in American society. In the 1960s and 70s, an insurgent attack on traditional liberalism took shape in America, built on new ideals of citizen advocacy and the public interest. . . . Drawing energy from civil rights protests and opposition to the Vietnam War, the new citizens movement drew legions of followers and scored major victories, disrupting plans for highways and dams, banning harmful chemicals, and blocking pipelines. . . . 'Public Citizens' traces the history of the public interest movement and explores its tangled legacy, showing the ways New Deal liberalism fell apart and the challenges in trying to replace it"--Provided by publisher.

The story of land-surveyor K's obsessive attempts to reach the castle, illustrating man's struggle against bureaucracy.

"There are millions of people--HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers--whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs. Graeber explores one of society's most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln . . . gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture"--Publisher.

Illustrates man's struggle against bureaucracy through the story of K, a land-surveyor who is obsessed with reaching the castle.

Argues that much of the cynicism in politics is due to the fact that Americans elect novices to office who do not know how to do their jobs, and describes eight traits of effective government officials.

When a daydreaming bureaucrat becomes unwittingly involved with an underground superhero and a beautiful mystery woman, he becomes the tragic victim of his own romantic illusions.