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(More customer reviews)Lester Salamon's edited book, "The Tools of Government," is an immensely useful work that identifies the various tools that government has today to effect its goals. Government policy-making has changed in recent decades. Now, problem solving by the public sector is not carried out by government alone. Nonprofits and the private sector have become involved, too. As Salamon notes (page vii): "Largely overlooked. . .has been the extent to which actual public problem solving has come to embrace the collaborative actions of governments at multiple levels and both government and private institutions."
A table on page 3 well illustrates this thesis. This table shows that:
(1) In social service delivery, 56% of services are delivered by nonprofits, 4% by for-profits, and 40% by government.
(2) In health, 44% of services are delivered by nonprofits, 23% by for-profits, and 33% by government. And so on. In reality, public service delivery is a complex mixture of government and non-governmental actors.
This volume describes the various tools used by those who deliver services--from economic regulation to government corporations to vouchers to grants to loans to tort liability to contracting and so on. The point is simple: there are many tools that can be used to achieve public goals--whether those services are actually delivered by the private sector, not-for-profits, or government itself.
However, tools are not developed and deployed in a vacuum. This volume also discusses the use of such tools in democracy and the nature of the politics of tool use. Also well discussed is accountability of the nonprofit, for-profit, and governmental sectors.
In the end, a well worthwhile book for those interested in how government decisions and priorities become implemented and services delivered. The book is not elegantly written, but there is much content here.
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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 byextensive 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; andacademic, government, and research libraries.
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