Research Catalog

Title

The true size of government / Paul C. Light.

Author

Light, Paul Charles.

Publication

Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution, c1999.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xii, 238 p. : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

• "This book addresses a seemingly simple question: Just how many people work for the federal government anyway? Congress and the president almost always answer the question by counting the number of full-time civil servants, which totaled 1.9 million when President Clinton declared the era of big government over in 1996. But, according to Paul Light, the true head count that year was nearly nine times higher than the official numbers, with about 17 million people delivering goods and services on the government's behalf. Most of those employees are part of what Light calls the "shadow of government"--Nonfederal employees working under federal contracts, grants, and mandates to state and local governments.
• In providing the first estimates of the shadow work force, this book explores the reasons why the official size of the federal government has remained so small while the shadow of government has grown so large."--Jacket.

Subject

• Civil service > United States
• Government consultants > United States
• United States > Officials and employees

Genre/Form

• comment.
• commentaire.
• comentario.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-224) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The illusion of smallness -- The true size of government -- The politics of illusion -- The tools for staying small -- The tools for sorting out -- Managing a government that looks smaller and delivers more.

ISBN

• 0815752660 (alk. paper)
• 0815752652 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^^98058143^

OCLC

• 40545487
• SCSB-10418922

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library